Berkeley
Opinion – Generation Lost – UC Berkeley’s Missing Black Graduates
In the mid-1960s, the University of California, Berkeley, started its Educational Opportunity Program to target underrepresented applicants and combat its history of discrimination.
Unsurprisingly, this program was a success and the number of Black freshmen continued to rise until 1996. That year, Gov. Pete Wilson and Black conservative politician Ward Connerly led an effort to repeal these education gains by passing Proposition 209.
Prop. 209 prohibited public universities from considering race and ethnicity in admissions decisions, which has closed Berkeley’s doors to countless minority students. But Black students were hit especially hard.
After Prop. 209, Black freshman enrollment at Berkeley dropped from 258 to 126. The numbers at professional schools were even more troubling. For example, there was only one Black student among Berkeley Law’s 268 first-year students. The lack of Black students at Berkeley has not improved with time.
Since Prop. 209 passed, the percentage of Black enrollees at Berkeley has only once reached 4%, and the percentage has hovered around 3% since 2007. Had the percentage of Black freshman stayed at pre-209 levels, there would have been 4,061 more Black enrollees since 1998 at Berkeley. This has also led to declining participation in science, technology, degree attainment, average wages, and the likelihood of earning higher wages throughout to the Black community.
Meanwhile, a state auditor found that UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and UC San Diego admitted dozens of unqualified students based on their connections to staff and donors since 2013.
Each one of those admissions came at the expense of other qualified applicants, with most of the freshmen spots going to white applicants from families making at least $150,000 per year.
Specifically, the auditor scolded UC Berkeley because their admissions practices for the wealthy and well-connected “demonstrates that campus leadership has failed to establish a campus culture that values commitment to an admissions process based on fairness and applicants’ merits and achievements.”
While Prop. 209 has hamstrung Berkeley’s ability to recruit Black students, public universities from 41 other states can still take race into account when making college admissions decisions.
This is also true of private universities that still consider race and ethnicity in their admissions policies to create avenues for Black applicants to access higher education.
For example, Stanford’s Fall 2019 freshman class was 8% Black or African American. That percentage nearly triples Berkeley’s freshman class for last year. Those numbers are even worse when omitting student-athletes.
California’s ban on affirmative action perversely limits our top universities from enrolling promising minority students and forces those that do enroll to jump through hoops just to get there. At the same time, it immeasurably strips the Black community of economic opportunity.
Black taxpayers have continued supporting California’s public universities while receiving less and less for that investment. The effect of Prop. 209 is that Black students who have been able to succeed—often at under-resourced K-12 schools—are then penalized in the college admissions process. This further compounds on the negative impact of the inequities these students are forced to confront and overcome just to graduate high school.
According to the Economist, college graduates earn about $17,500 more annually than those with a high school diploma. The economic losses on an individual level pale in comparison to the countless dollars in lost opportunities for Black businesses, decades-long deficits in educational opportunities for Black students, and nearly two generations of losses of Black business owners, lawyers, engineers, nurses, and doctors.
The harm to Black communities in the Bay Area will be felt for decades as California has sent fewer students to the state’s flagship training ground for business and community leadership. Because of Prop. 209, the wealthy and well-connected in California continue to control access to lucrative careers that are only accessible to alumni from top universities, and they keep cherry-picking successors that look just like them.
Prop. 16 gives the next generation of students a deserved and enhanced opportunity to achieve success in surmounting those inequities—and they, our universities, and this society would be much better off for it. We desperately need something new in California.
Prop. 16 will begin to prove that our lives matter by taking back our hard-won rights to equal opportunities in jobs, business, housing, and college admissions for Black Californians. Prop. 16 is a key tool for expanding opportunities for young Black people, and we need your vote in November to make that opportunity a reality.
Dr. Harry Edwards is a Professor Emeritus at U.C. Berkeley and founder of the Olympic Project for Human Rights.
Activism
Black Repertory Group Needs Volunteers to Help Shape the Next Generation of Artists and Leaders
Legendary performers such as Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover worked with and were inspired by BRG’s founders. More recently, Grammy award-winning artist Kehlani attended the Black Repertory Group Summer Day Camp for several years.
By Sean Vaughn Scott, Special to The Post
For more than 60 years, the Black Repertory Group (BRG) has changed lives through the arts.
Founded in 1964 by educators and visionaries Birel L. Vaughn and Nora Vaughn, BRG has become one of America’s oldest continuously operating Black theater institutions. For generations, it has preserved culture, developed talent, and provided opportunities for young people to discover their voices and their potential.
The results speak for themselves.
Legendary performers such as Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover worked with and were inspired by BRG’s founders. More recently, Grammy award-winning artist Kehlani attended the Black Repertory Group Summer Day Camp for several years.
Long before international recognition, Kehlani performed on the BRG stage. During a summer day camp production of “Princess and da Frog,” she portrayed Ray, the lovable firefly whose light guided others through the darkness. Her journey is proof that today’s camper may become tomorrow’s artist, entrepreneur, educator, or leader.
Located at 3201 Adeline St. in Berkeley, BRG continues that mission through its Youth Summer Day Camp of the Arts.
BRG is currently accepting applications and maintains an open enrollment program. Students may enroll throughout the summer as space permits and immediately become part of the BRG family.
We are also proud to be a multicultural opportunity program, welcoming children and families from all backgrounds, cultures, and communities. Through theater, music, dance, public speaking, visual arts, technical theater, and leadership development, students gain confidence, discipline, creativity, and lifelong skills.
As our programs grow, so does our need for volunteers.
We are seeking community members to assist with youth mentoring, registration, costumes, set construction, painting, props, ushering, photography, social media, marketing, technical theater, and fundraising activities. Whether you volunteer for a few hours or throughout the season, your support directly impacts the lives of young people.
BRG also partners with churches, civic organizations, alumni associations, fraternities, sororities, and community groups through theater party fundraisers, group sales, and buy-out performances. These partnerships have helped organizations raise funds while supporting arts and cultural programming.
The theater also serves as the home of the Berkeley NAACP Chapter, which meets every second Saturday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m.
For more than six decades, the Black Repertory Group has remained committed to one belief: every child deserves an opportunity to shine.
The next great artist may already be among us.
The next Kehlani may already be walking through our doors.
We invite you to volunteer, enroll, participate, and become part of the legacy.
For more information please go to www.blackrepertorygroup.com, call (510) 652-2120, or email info@blackrepertorygroup.com
Sean Vaughn Scott is the director of the Black Repertory Group.
Bay Area
UC Berkeley Named Top Public University in the U.S. and No. 7 in the World by ‘U.S. News’
Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014. “A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.
The 2026 Best Global Universities rankings evaluated 2,250 research institutions from more than 100 countries
By Lila Thulin
U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Berkeley No. 7 in its 2026 list of the best global universities, which assesses more than 2,250 research institutions worldwide.
Berkeley also claimed the honor of top public university in the U.S.
Released on Monday, the list evaluates universities from more than 100 countries on 13 metrics such as global and research reputation (as reported by academics and peers) and number of highly cited scholarly papers.
Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014.
“A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.
The rankings also assess a university’s strength in various subject areas; these assessments are separate from U.S. News’ 2026 Best Graduate Programs rankings released in April.
This year, Berkeley was named in the top three nationally in seven subject areas – environment/ecology, ecology, water resources, physics, computer science, chemistry, and engineering – and in the top five for a total of 17 subjects. Subject rankings are based heavily on scholarly publications and citations as well as reputation.
In September, U.S. News also released its 2026 Best Colleges list, in which Berkeley was also named the No. 1 public institution among American universities.
That honor joins other accolades judging campus to be the best public university in the country, such as those from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education.
Arts and Culture
Farwest Region Deltas Celebrate Centennial With “September Breakfast” Honoring Vivian Osborne Marsh
The region was established in 1925 under the leadership of Vivian Osborne Marsh, who became its first Regional Director. Marsh was a pioneering scholar and civic leader, earning recognition as the first Black woman to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.
By Antoinette Porter
Hundreds of members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and their guests gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley, to mark the 100th anniversary of the sorority’s Farwest Region.
The region was established in 1925 under the leadership of Vivian Osborne Marsh, who became its first Regional Director. Marsh was a pioneering scholar and civic leader, earning recognition as the first Black woman to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.
Marsh went on to serve as Delta Sigma Theta’s 7th National President, where she launched the sorority’s National Library Project to expand access to books in underserved Black communities in the South. During her presidency, the organization also became a prominent voice in the civil rights movement, lobbying Congress to pass anti-lynching legislation.
Bak in the Bay Area, Marsh devoted her career to advancing educational opportunities, mentoring young people, and strengthening community life. That commitment continues to shape the region, which supports initiatives in education, social justice, and economic development. Current projects include raising scholarship funds for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, voter education campaigns, and health and wellness programs.
A century after its founding, the Farwest Region of Delta Sigma Theta remains active across California and other western states, carrying forward Marsh’s vision of service and advocacy.
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