The College Fix

In lawsuit, professor alleges University of California is discriminating against white and Asian American students

University of California Los Angeles law students protested against a professor who opposes race-based college admissions, describing his position as “racist repression” at a rally Thursday on campus.

The protest targeted law Professor Richard Sander who, along with a group of students and parents, recently filed a lawsuit alleging the University of California is discriminating against white and Asian American students in its admissions process, the Daily Bruin reports.

“What we’re doing is essentially rejecting Richard Sander and his position on campus as well as all that stands behind that – all of the racist repression,” law student Noah Massillon told the student newspaper.

The UCLA Black Law Students Association and other student groups organized the protest.

Students held signs that named Sander and mentioned “diversity” and “discrimination,” the student newspaper reports:

The students chanted, “Whose University? Our University,” and, “When we stand up, we get power. When we get power, they get scared.”

Malik Marshall, a law student who led the rally, said in a speech that California passed Proposition 209 – which made affirmative action illegal in the college admissions process – to “erase” Black students. …

Brendan Wong, a law student at UCLA, said in a speech that Sander’s lawsuit seeks to drive a wedge between Asian American students and other students of color to serve his personal agenda.

“To all Asians and Asian Americans, I want to encourage you to think about who truly has our best interests in mind and who is using us and weaponizing our identities,” said Wong, the social chair of the Asian/Pacific Islander Law Students Association at UCLA. “I urge you to speak up, to speak up for our communities and for others.”

The professor is part of the group Students Against Racial Discrimination, which filed a lawsuit against the University of California system earlier this year, The College Fix reported previously.

The group includes Republicans, Democrats, and independent students, parents, academics, and citizens. In their lawsuit, they allege the public university’s admissions process gives “discriminatory preferences to non-Asian racial minorities.”

The UC system allows “applicants with inferior academic credentials to obtain admission at the expense of rejected candidates with better academic credentials,” the lawsuit alleges.

However, UC spokesperson Omar Rodriguez told The Fix at the time that the lawsuit is “meritless,” and the university complies with the state law banning the consideration of race in admissions.

Sander has done extensive research on the issue of affirmative action, finding that it often harms racial minorities.

As The Fix previously reported, one study published in 2023 found a “mismatch effect,” or “big credential gaps” between racial minority students “who receive preferences” in admissions when compared to their classmates.

“If a student’s credentials are much lower than his or her classmates’ credentials, the student is much more likely to fail the bar exam, and the risk increases steadily as the ‘gap’ increases,” Sander told The Fix at the time. “This means that large admissions preferences – whether racial, [socioeconomic status], legacy, etc. – are very harmful to a student’s prospects of passing the bar and becoming a lawyer.”

“Several earlier studies found evidence for this same ‘mismatch effect’ in legal education, but this study is the first to be able to measure each individual student’s level of mismatch directly,” he said at the time.

MORE: Lawsuit alleges U. California system still has illegal race-based admissions practices

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A sign to the University of California Los Angeles campus. Chris Radcliff/Flickr

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