House panel takes up diversity

Six years after the passage of Initiative 200, the debate about affirmative action again raged in a House committee hearing yesterday in the state Legislature.

House Bill 1586 and Senate Bill 5575 propose changing Washington state law to allow public-college admission policy to consider race, which was banned from admissions, public contracting and hiring after voters approved the initiative. Today, the Senate education committee will meet at 8 a.m. to hear public testimony.

Similar bills were introduced last year but died in committee. Rep. Phyllis Kenney, D-Seattle, and Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, who introduced the bills this year, believe that the measures failed last year because of the Republican majority in the Senate. Since the majority has swung to the Democrats this session, they believe the amendment has a better chance of success this year.

"This might become an annual event here," John Carlson, radio commentator and chairman of the Initiative 200 campaign, said at yesterday's hearing.

Supporters say the amendment would reconcile state law with a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said the University of Michigan law school could consider race in admissions as long as it served a "compelling state interest in student-body diversity."

The current bills would add the following to the state constitution:

"Public colleges will not be prohibited from using race, ethnicity or national origin in admission or transfer policies.

"No race-based admission slots or bonus points may be used in admissions.

"All qualified applicants will be individually and holistically considered."

Yesterday, most of the speakers, who included university officials, minority community and church leaders and faculty, urged the committee to support the bills. Gov. Christine Gregoire also is supporting an amendment.

"A diverse student body and faculty contributes to the quality of every student's education," said Tim Washburn, associate vice president of enrollment services at the University of Washington.

Students also voiced their concern.

"In a lot of classes, I'm the only African-American male," said Marc Philpart, a graduate student in the UW's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs.

"A lot of students are interested in working for worthy causes," he said of his classmates. But because of the lack of diverse perspectives in class discussions, he said, "They won't be able to deal with issues they run into."

Tim Eyman, co-sponsor of I-200, repeated the argument he made at last year's hearings, comparing schools' consideration of race to "a drug addiction." He called the House bill a "disgusting betrayal of citizens."

Three out of five voters approved I-200 in 1998.

Carlson cited enrollment statistics, adding that the current UW class is the most diverse in the school's history, contrary to the "disaster" I-200 opponents had predicted.

At the UW, African-American, Hispanic and Native American enrollment, as a percentage of total undergraduates, is slightly lower than 1998 levels.

In their remarks at the end of the hearing, Higher Education committee members seemed split on the bill.

"I have a hard time with what we call reverse discrimination," said Rep. Jim Dunn, R-Cascade Park, Clark County.

Rep. Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle, said, "I don't think the figures show at all that there is great diversity. ... If we have one of the most prominent schools of public affairs and only one [student] is African American, you have a problem."

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published February 11, 2005, was corrected February 11, 2005. An earlier version of this story stated that Senate Bill 5575 and House Bill 1586 would amend the state constitution to allow public colleges to consider race as a factor in admissions. The bills propose to change Washington state law.