Negative action.

• Position: The elimination of affirmative action has led to a large decrease in admissions of minority students at California state universities

In early April, the University of California-Berkeley reported a drastic decrease in admissions for black and Hispanic students. Together, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans make up 10.4 percent of the admitted 1998 freshman class--way down from last year's 23.1 percent. The shift comes in the wake of Proposition 209, the ballot initiative that ended affirmative action in California.

The numbers are almost as troubling at UCLA, where the percentage of minority freshmen fell from 19.8 percent in 1997 to 12.7 percent this year. And across the state of California, many public universities reported drops, despite an overall increase in applications from minority high-school seniors.

"The results weren't a surprise," says Ted Shaw, the associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. "Those of us opposed to 209 argued this would have a disproportionate effect on African Americans and Latinos. This should be a warning in terms of the likely outcome if states adopt similar propositions."

California may be the trendsetter. In 1997, eleven state legislatures introduced bills designed to limit affirmative action.

Among the students not admitted to the University of California-Berkeley were 800 minority students with 4.0 grade point averages and SAT scores in the range of 1,200. That is a scandal.

Here at this magazine, we believe in affirmative action. We believe that sex or race can be a legitimate factor--though not the sole one--in admissions and hiring decisions. Affirmative action redresses prior and ongoing societal discrimination, and it brings a healthy diversity to campuses and workplaces.

Jonathan Alger, legal counsel with the American Association of University Professors, argues that the lack of students from different backgrounds will diminish the quality of education at the University of California system. Diverse university classrooms, he says, are more and more necessary as the nation's middle and high schools grow increasingly segregated.

"Affirmative action has benefits for all students," says Alger, "not just those who might get a bump in the admissions process."

The drop-off in minority admissions should prompt the state of California to reverse its ban on affirmative action. Failing that, the University of California system should at least revise the way it evaluates its students. There is no reason why a minority student who achieves at the highest level in high school should...