I-200 Chilled Minorities’ College Applications UW Steps Up Out-Of-State Recruiting As A Result, Ewu Official Laments

Since Washington voters approved a ban on affirmative action by state agencies, the University of Washington has increased spending to recruit minorities outside the state where restrictions don’t apply, said an enrollment official at Eastern Washington University on Friday.

“That’s how they’re going to solve the problem,” said William Ponder, associate vice president for enrollment services at EWU. “Who gets disadvantaged? People in the state.”

Ponder was one of a dozen presenters at the fourth annual Unity in the Community conference sponsored by Spokane Community College. More than 100 people attended the event Friday.

Ponder gave a presentation to 15 people titled “Initiative 200 Passed - What Now?”

His hourlong session spelled out the impact of the law that stopped state institutions, colleges and governments from giving preferential treatment to people because of their race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.

In Spokane County, 81,000 people voted for I-200 last year while 44,000 voted against it. Statewide, 58 percent of voters supported it.

“People in the state voted on this on the assumption it was leveling the playing field,” Ponder said.

The unforeseen impacts have been great, he said.

Research by university officials shows that minorities feel like they no longer have access to colleges, he said.

Applications from minority students were down 20 percent at the University of Washington this fall. Washington State University was down 17 percent. Ponder did not have application statistics for Eastern.

“Students who would have normally looked at applying, did not,” Ponder said. “Initiative 200 says, `If I apply, I will not be admitted.’ It’s a community perception, not a fact, but it is believed.”

Talented minority students are leaving for out-of-state private schools and may never return, he said.

“Howard, Grambling, Morehouse, they had more recruiters in this state than they ever had before,” Ponder said. “If students leave, they generally don’t come back. Why would they?”

On top of access problems and an exodus of minority talent, I-200 has given a “leg up” for three groups that are composed largely of white males - veterans, people age 40 and older, and the disabled, he said. All still get preference because I-200 left their preferred status intact.

“That’s a pretty interesting dynamic given the fact that it was designed to lick preferential treatment as defined by them,” Ponder said. “The impact of this is far greater than what the initiators thought it was supposed to do.”

The next noteworthy impact from I-200 may be a court case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a reverse-discrimination suit against the UW Law School that claims three people were not admitted because they are white.

“This lawsuit will be the first test of how I-200 will be used,” Ponder said.

The case could ultimately overturn the federal laws that still implement affirmative action. A decision is expected from the 9th Circuit this winter or fall.

The current federal law was set in 1978 and established race could be a factor in admissions as set by a case brought by a medical student at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine.

While Americans squabble about access to education, foreign countries are pushing students through U.S. schools and keeping an edge in the international trade deficit, Ponder said.

“We’re doing it to ourselves,” he said, stressing a need for everyone to have access to education.

“You never know where that person will come from who cures cancer,” Ponder said.

Some of the ways that minorities can still work on access to institutions is to ensure local civic and community organizations, churches and schools are well-represented by minority communities, Ponder said. A little homework will also reveal which business and institutions receive federal funds and have to abide by federal laws that still mandate affirmative action programs.