Daily Briefing

Good morning, and welcome to Tuesday, June 20. Today’s Briefing was written by Rick Seltzer, with contributions from Julia Piper. Write to me: rick.seltzer@chronicle.com.

‘It’s been a climb back’ since California banned race from admissions

Elena Zhukova, University of California

With the Supreme Court set to rule this month on whether race-conscious admissions is legal, the Daily Briefing sat down with Michael Drake, the president of the University of California system.

In 1996 Drake was an ophthalmology professor and the associate dean for admissions at the University of California at San Francisco when state voters passed Proposition 209, which prevented the state’s public colleges from considering gender and race in admissions.

The system’s struggle to enroll diverse student bodies in Prop 209’s wake offers something of a preview of what might follow for other highly selective institutions should the court strike down the use of race-conscious admissions.

Here are highlights from our conversation.

Drake sees his experience in health care as one argument for race-conscious admissions. Who gets into college ultimately shapes professions and communities.

Campus officials in California saw health disparities as one reason to train more diverse physicians. Research found that even poor white communities had more physicians per capita than wealthy Black communities, Drake said. And patients are more likely to see physicians who share their race or ethnicity.

• “One thing we would need to do is increase the number of physicians who were taking care of those patients who were underserved.”
• “As you have a diverse team, the questions you ask, the perspective you bring, the interaction you have with patients, it is also more diverse and inclusive, and just much better right away.”

After Prop 209 banned the consideration of race in admissions, the University of California had to adapt. Admissions became more complex and holistic, Drake said.

• “We want to assess your performance, given the opportunity that you’ve had.”
• “Where did you grow up, what kind of people did you know, what languages did you speak? What did you do in your volunteer time, or what were your hobbies?”

Prop 209 pushed some students to other colleges. Top UC-system campuses were posting poor outcomes for Black students before 1996, but after the ban went into place, Black and Latino enrollment plunged at the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses. It’s since recovered somewhat, and enrollment across the system as a whole has grown more diverse.

• “For African American and Latino students, 209 was a sign of unwelcome. A lot of students who might have come to us said, ‘Let me go someplace where I’m actually qualified and welcome.”
• “It’s been a climb back, but in the last few years, we feel we’ve gotten pretty close to where we would have been.”

In 2020, a California ballot initiative to overturn Prop 209 failed. Drake looked back at what students told him in the 1990s to help understand why.

• “They were very interested in being part of a diverse class. They thought that was the right thing to do. They were queasy about the methodology.”
• “They didn’t feel, themselves, that they had done anything to prevent, individually, anyone else from having this opportunity. And so they weren’t so supportive of the concept of affirmative action.”

For more on the 2020 effort to overturn Prop 209: The New York Times recently looked back on “The Failed Affirmative Action Campaign That Shook Democrats.”

For a full primer on the Supreme Court’s upcoming rulings, check out this guide from our J. Brian Charles in the Race on Campus newsletter.

Quick hits

• Publisher to sell OPM: Wiley will sell several “non-core” education businesses, including its online-program management and talent-development arms, it said last week. Wiley wrote down the book value of the businesses by $100 million in 2023. (Wiley)
• MOVEit hack hits colleges: U.S. institutions including the University System of Georgia, the Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Rochester were likely among those compromised when criminals took advantage of a vulnerability in MOVEit file-transfer software. Government agencies and the National Student Clearinghouse were also among the organizations the ransomware gang Clop said it hacked. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WJZ, University of Rochester, TechCrunch)
• Tennessee college-going rate rises: The share of the Class of 2022 that immediately enrolled in college after graduating from high school jumped by 1.5-percentage points to 54.3 percent, according to new data. It’s the first time the rate rose since 2017, when it was 63.8 percent. (Tennessee Higher Education Commission)

Mailbag: Enrollment concerns and emergency preparedness?

Here’s a sample of reader responses to stories featured in the Daily Briefing over the last few weeks. Have more to say? Email me: rick.seltzer@chronicle.com.

Colleges can do better during disasters.

Disaster-recovery plans can be the difference between an institution keeping everyone safe and bungling its response to an emergency.

Antonio Passaro Jr., a professor and department chair at Tidewater Community College, wrote a book on operational safety plans for institutions in crisis.

• “Colleges, universities, businesses, churches, etc. are not prepared for any manmade, natural, or technological disasters before, during, and after a tragic event.”

Dennis E. Gregory, a professor at Old Dominion University, was Passaro’s adviser.

• “We are seeing these concerns around the world.”

Undergraduate Enrollment Stayed Steady This Spring. It’s Still 1 Million Students Below Pre-Pandemic Levels.

After our Audrey Williams June explored the latest spring enrollment data, we asked how declines have played out on readers’ campuses.

Glen E. Duncan, professor and chair of the department of nutrition and exercise physiology at Washington State University, cited several years of recent enrollment declines at his own institution.

• “The quick and dirty answer is not well!”

What leads faculty to stay or go?

Survey data shows salary is a top reason that faculty leave jobs. Their co-workers are a main reason they stay.

Laurel Van Dromme, chair of the University Staff Advisory Committee at Ohio State University, wondered how much faculty and staff members share reasons for their job decisions.

• “I expect the latter have fewer opportunities to move, but I don’t want to presume anything. Given how many more staff work at any institution of higher education, I think these stats will be helpful to senior administrators and to those of us who work with staff at our own institutions to improve retention and enhance morale and well-being.”

Comings and goings

• Julie Kornfeld, vice provost for academic programs at Columbia University, will become president of Kenyon College, in Ohio, in October.
• Mary Evans Sias, a member of the Board of Regents for Texas Southern University, has been named interim president of the university.
• Carol Christ, chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley since 2017, plans to retire next year.
• Heather Woofter, director of the College of Architecture and the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin.

To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.

Footnote

Are you a sneakerhead with an extra $150, a soft spot for students, and strong arches? Then the iamkeithcurry Compton College Chuck Taylor high tops are for you.

Keith Curry, the California community college’s president, says profits from selling the shoes will go to scholarships at the institution. Each pair is emblazoned with scenes of the college’s campus, and they also fit with the president’s image. He makes a point of wearing Chuck Taylors as a way to be himself and connect with students.

The timeless Chucks are a great shoe for this kind of thing, but their design is about a century old, making it a suboptimal fit for those of us with foot, ankle, knee, and back pain.

How about some Compton College dad shoes next?