# Practically speaking, how does California's Proposition 209 work?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-speaking-how-does-californias-proposition-209-work/724290>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 5, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-speaking-how-does-californias-proposition-209-work/724290 "2015-07-05T02:18:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-speaking-how-does-californias-proposition-209-work/724290/1 "2015-07-05T02:18:04Z")

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Even if race-based admissions to certain universities are “banned,” what prevents a university admissions administrator from seeing family surnames of applicants (i.e., “Cheng” is most likely Asian, “Hernandez” is most likely Hispanic) and subtly, silently, tacitly practicing racial affirmative action anyway?

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**Author:** ![dofe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-speaking-how-does-californias-proposition-209-work/724290/2 "2015-07-05T03:12:52Z")

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In practice it means that race cannot be used as a factor when considering students for admission. Admissions committees generally use a form listing the selection criteria (if you’re interested, the selection criteria for the UC system is listed [here](http://www.ucop.edu/student-affairs/_files/GUIDELINES_FOR_IMPLEMENTATION_OF_UNIVERSITY_POLICY_on_UG_ADM_Revised_July2012.pdf), at pages 3-5). Each applicant is then given a score in each section, and the score tallied at the end. Where prop 209 came in was it prohibited the use of race as a selection criteria. Interestingly, note that selection criteria #14 is:

> [@](#):
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> Location of the applicant’s secondary school and residence. These factors shall be considered in order to provide for geographic diversity in the student population and also to account for the wide variety of educational environments existing in California.

The UC’s General Counsel’s Office has [advised](http://www.ucop.edu/general-counsel/guidance/enhancing-diversity-at-uc.html) admissions committees that they may “grant special consideration to students from, for example, particular high schools or neighborhoods based (at least in part) on the overall ethnic demographics of the school or neighborhood, _as long as the University does not differentiate among students on the basis of their individual race/ethnicity._”

Now, do admissions officers – especially considering selection criteria #14 – use race as a silent factor? Likely or likely not, but admissions officers will have to justify this based on a factor that is arguably distinct from the race of the applicant (that is, the racial makeup of the applicant’s neighborhood).

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**Author:** ![andrewm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@andrewm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewm)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-speaking-how-does-californias-proposition-209-work/724290/3 "2015-07-05T15:00:18Z")

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> [@Velocity](#):
>
> Even if race-based admissions to certain universities are “banned,” what prevents a university admissions administrator from seeing family surnames of applicants (i.e., “Cheng” is most likely Asian, “Hernandez” is most likely Hispanic) and subtly, silently, tacitly practicing racial affirmative action anyway?

It wouldn’t be very hard to have clerical staff (or a computer for that matter) replace the name on an application with a serial number before sending it to the admissions reviewers. I’ve seen this done with resumes.