Affirmative Action Ballot Measure Fails, But These Students Are Still Fighting To Diversify Their Universities

Speaker 1: 00:00 In this month's election, California voters rejected prop 16, the ballot measure spearheaded by San Diego assembly woman, Shirley Webber. It would have reinstated affirmative action in public institutions and government contracts. That's despite polling this summer that showed most Californians think racial inequality is a major issue. Kaylene Carter, a member of the Cal matters student journalism network, and a junior at Sacramento state spoke with a student leader about prop sixteens, failure, Speaker 2: 00:31 IO banjo. Co-chairs the pan African student association, a collaboration of black and Pan-African student groups across the university of California system. Banjo is a senior at UC Santa Cruz, where less than 5% of the student body is black. He says he and other students he's talked to were confused by the outcome of prop 16. Speaker 3: 00:51 We're were feeling very hurt by what we call a progressive state, not being able to pass a progressive bill that could actually lead the way for the rest of the nation. Speaker 2: 01:02 He also thinks that the measure suffered from misleading framing. Speaker 3: 01:07 Making it seem as if universities or other entities within California are going to be giving out free handouts. When in reality, it's just about measuring and bringing justice to the racial groups that have been disaffected by all discriminatory policies that have affected our communities for generations. Speaker 2: 01:28 When people don't step up to find solutions to equity gaps in higher ed students end up shouldering. A lot of the effort. Banjo says Speaker 3: 01:36 The fact that we as students have to do so much to address these histories of, of social inequities that other folks get paid. Hundreds of thousand dollars to do is kind of sad. Speaker 2: 01:49 Black students are burnt out right now. Banjo says, and he thinks they should use the failure of prop 16 as a chance to step back and reassess how they can make the most impact in their communities. For banjo. This includes a black research grant he's helped develop with the pan African student association. The grant would pay black students to research how to better recruit and retain other students, just like them. Speaker 3: 02:13 Do you hope that this black research grant will serve as a model for how universities could respond to not just the failure of prop 16, but also to institutionalizing a black agenda for their campuses and for their students who attend our campuses. We want universities to become competitive and we want universities to be incentivized, to want to be competitive when it comes to the resources that they offer to students of color. Okay. Speaker 2: 02:47 And is poised to be implemented UC wide, but banjo and his peers are still waiting for funding approval from the university office of the president. Speaker 1: 02:57 Uh,