TO: Campus Community
FR: President Ming-Tung "Mike" Lee
Dear Campus Colleagues:
As I began reading some of the excellent responses to today’s Supreme Court ruling against Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s consideration of race in admissions decisions, I thought about how crucial diverse higher education remains to the promise of a working democracy in the United States. I have been reading opinions and reactions from all over the political map, including the joint statements from the California Higher Education segments, noting that diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are core values at our institutions. We will continue to support programs and practices that seek to address historical inequities and ensure that our colleges and universities are reflective of California's rich and dynamic diversity. Indeed, such will be the case at Sonoma State University.
Regardless of political party or ideology, we need to invest in our youth, in families, and in a future of success for each person. That success will not come in the form of higher education for everyone, but everyone needs to have a meaningful choice for their future, and for that they need authentic opportunity and knowledge. We Californians should know, because we have been working assiduously to build back the adverse impact that Proposition 209 had on educational diversity from pre-K through the graduate school pipeline.
The solution to our inequality is not simple or easy or one-dimensional, just as the reality of the problems are not. But there are so many talented people, from all backgrounds, who can contribute. We just need the national will for change, and that, I hope, is the ultimate outcome of today’s ruling: that the imperative for change, for a truly more perfect union, is clear, and that it reinvigorates all of us to work harder for our students, and for our collective future.