February 19, 2002 UC Professors Call for Immediate Elimination of SAT and Increase in Underrepresented Minority Student Enrollment     The elimination of affirmative action in the University of California has been a tragic mistake. Recognizing and attempting to correct this mistake, the University of California regents voted unanimously to reverse the ban on affirmative action at their May 16, 2001 meeting in San Francisco.     Now we as faculty have the opportunity, the responsibility and the authority to begin taking important steps to correct the tragic consequences of the regents' 1995 mistake. The years since the elimination of affirmative action in the University of California prove that the inequality and segregation of our society still require positive counter-measures.     The University of California is one of the best public university systems in the world. Our education policy, our research, and our intellectual output are looked to the world over. This is an important responsibility. We must set an example of openness and equality of opportunity. We must set an example of active opposition to racial caste and stratification. We must in no way participate in the sordid tradition of marginalizing black, Latina/o, Native American and other underrepresented minority young people in our state. If the UC System itself is tainted by the segregation and racial inequality that have too long poisoned our national life, a stamp of hypocrisy is placed on our entire project, despite all of our sincere and diligent efforts.     California is now a majority minority state. In order for the UC system to be an institution that is democratic, open and responsible to the state of California, it is critical that the UC system represent our state's broad and rich diversity. It is an untenable contradiction simultaneously to have the diversity of our state increasing while opportunities in higher education are being narrowed for Latina/o, black and other underrepresented minority students. We know that separate cannot be equal and that integration is an educational and a social imperative.     The current use of the SAT in admissions arbitrarily reduces the number of underrepresented minority students who are accepted into our flagship schools. The discriminatory impact of the SAT I means that academically capable, intellectually gifted students who would very likely succeed at UCLA or UC Berkeley are cut off from that opportunity because of the university's use of the SAT I. For these and other reasons: We call for an immediate end to the use of the SAT I in University of California admissions. We support the proposal for unitary admissions* as a component of what is necessary to reverse the drop in underrepresented minority enrollment that has followed the elimination of affirmative action. We call for an increase in underrepresented minority student enrollment beginning next fall.