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Editorials
Saturday, November 18, 2000Affirmative action
headed for high courtThe issue: A federal judge is expected to rule soon on a challenge to the University of Michigan's affirmative action program.
AFFIRMATIVE action programs providing for racial diversity on college campuses are headed for another test in the U.S. Supreme Court. A federal judge is expected to rule within the next several weeks on whether the University of Michigan may continue with its admissions policy, which includes advantages for minority applicants. What could be the most significant ruling on affirmative action programs in decades should clarify measures that may be allowed without dismantling race-conscious policies.
By a 5-4 vote in 1978, the Supreme Court struck down an affirmative action program at the University of California at Davis Medical School. However, the court said that admissions officers could consider race as one of many factors to promote diversity. The decision has received various interpretations since then in affirmative action programs fashioned by colleges across the country.
Kirk Kolbo, an attorney for white students who brought the Michigan suit, argues that the university has "effectively replaced a fixed and rigid quota with a dual-admissions system" for white and minority applicants. He said ethnic diversity is a concept "so vague, so open-ended, so malleable and so subject to abuse and pretext" that it should not be regarded as a compelling government interest.
The University of Michigan awards minority applicants 20 points on an index that combines grade-point average, standardized test scores and such factors as geography, leadership and alumni connections. University attorney John Payton says a racially diverse campus "improves the education for all students" and is "a fundamental part of our educational system."
Since there is no factual dispute in the case, U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan has indicated he may issue a ruling without conducting a trial. If he were to rule against the university, African-American and Hispanic students who intervened in the case still may ask for a trial on the issue of whether affirmative action is needed to remedy the university's history of racial discrimination.
Regardless of how Duggan rules, the case is widely expected to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Only three of the nine justices who took part in the 1978 decision remain on the court today, but the importance of greater diversity on college campuses -- without infringing on the rights of others -- has not changed.
Natatorium pool water
should meet standards
THE Waikiki Natatorium was rededicated on Memorial Day after restoration of its facade, grandstand and shower and changing areas, but the swimming pool remains closed. Proposed rules to assure healthy conditions in saltwater pools need approval, but the natatorium pool should not be expected to be safer than ocean water.
Circuit Judge Gail Nakatani ruled last year that the pool could not be opened until the city had gained clearance from the state Health Department. The department had no standards for saltwater pools, since all public pools have been freshwater.
Deputy Health Director Gary Gill says the department spent nearly a year considering water quality issues before agreeing on a set of proposed rules. The Kaimana Beach Coalition, which opposed the Natatorium's restoration from the outset, contends that the rules are inadequate and the pool should not be reopened.
The coalition argues that the rules do not include testing the water for or reducing staphylococcus, a bacteria that causes pus in boils and abscesses. Gill says the absence of any accepted method of testing for staph or any public health standard for staph prevented the department from establishing any standard for it in saltwater pools.
Gill said the pool's water quality "must meet our existing ocean standards," but coalition attorney Jim Bickerton questions whether that will be the case. "The difference is you have a contained body of water that has a much lower circulation rate and diffusion rate than the ocean," he says.
The Natatorium's pool design provides for frequent flushing of the pool. Its operator would have to monitor water clarity daily during the pool's peak use and for fecal indicator bacteria weekly at multiple sites within the pool and near-shore sites outside the pool.
Governor Cayetano still must approve the proposed rules before they are subjected to public hearings. More information about the risks associated with staph may be gathered and used to hone the rules before they become effective early next year.
However, the Health Department should not be compelled to embark on an extensive scientific study of staphylococcus. Reasonable safeguards should be taken to protect the public against bacteria in the pool.
But it should not remain closed because of the lack of knowledge needed to establish a threshold in rules governing saltwater pools.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
