Prop 209 may impact CSULB office

The proposed California Civil Rights Initiative, Proposition 209, is likely to have an impact on the Affirmative Action Office at Cal State Long Beach, although it is unclear just how much according to its director Karen Alvarado.

Alvarado said one thing is for sure. She said Prop. 209, which aims to end race and gender preferences in government hiring and contracting and college admissions at all state-funded institutions, will not do away with her office but rather increase the work load.

"What we basically deal with is Civil Rights Law and discrimination," Alvarado said. "There's no reason why we can't continue with those program."

She pointed out that California cannot tell the federal government what to do.

"We operate under federal law," Alvarado said. "What we have to do to be in compliance with federal laws prohibiting discrimination are all still in place."

The initiative has wording that Alvarado views as troublesome and says it is the reason why her work load will augment. As written, the initiative introduces new terms and designations that have never been dealt with before in California law.

The Western State University Law Review Association found five new terms, including ethnicity, group, preferential treatment, operation of public contracting and operation of public education, that are without precedent in California.

"This opens up new arenas where people could claim discrimination," Alvarado said.

The findings of the W.S.U.L.R.A. concur saying that even individuals and groups not directly harmed by wrongful actions could be aggrieved parties and sue under Prop. 209 just be being a member of an excluded group.

According to Alvarado, the Affirmative Action Office deals with federal issues such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protect against discrimination in employment and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender.

"This campus still has to be in compliance with those laws," Alvarado said. "We have no choice. We have to be in compliance with regulations issued by any federal agency that gives us money."

Alvarado gave an example of how keeping affirmative action is a must if this university is to receive funding for studies.

"If we're doing an AIDS study being funded by the Department Health and Human Services and if we don't follow their regulation that mandate that we do affirmative action, we don't get the money," Alvarado said.

She sees possible problems with other programs done voluntarily on campus that might be targeted for dismantling because they would be in violation if this proposition passes.

"You might have an individual challenging the existence of the Educational Opportunities Program, Women's Resource Center, the President's Commission for Women or the Ethnic Studies Program," Alvarado said.

However it is unclear to what extent these programs could be affected. The public education aspect of the initiative has been called broad by many. The W.S.U.L.R.A. has pointed out that there has been no effort to examine the vast legislative coverage included in the term public education.

A recent Los Angeles Times poll found registered voters favoring the initiative 60 percent to 25 percent. Alvarado said even if the initiative passes it will most likely be tied up in court.

"There will be all kinds of litigation," she said. "But I don't know whether that litigation will stop it from being enforced."

In any case Alvarado said her office will continue to actively recruit minorities and under represented groups as mandated by an executive order signed by former President Lyndon Johnson and upheld by every president since. She said her office will continue doing affirmative action as required by federal regulation in order to help students.

She sees students as the biggest losers if affirmative action is terminated because federal funds allocated to CSULB would not be made available.