Mitchell-Kernan said she is concerned that because of California's Proposition 209, which banned all forms of race-based affirmative action in college admissions, minority students will find the University of California unwelcoming in the future.
"The University of California is a very selective institution, recruiting the top 12 and a half percent at the undergraduate level," she said. "We must therefore ask ourselves the question whether we have created an environment likely to attract the same segment among minorities. I fear we have not."
The College Fund's Nettles was less pessimistic. "That could just mean a shift," he said, of students who leave California to attend college.
"There is some cause for concern in the nation's most selective public universities because of the events in Texas with Hopwood and in the referendum in California. But the signs of a decline are not apparent. There is no basis for projecting gloomy days ahead for African Americans in higher education."
Nettles continued: "I'm not one to tell you that it's raining when the sun is shining. And it's a beautiful day."
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