CSUN DISCUSSES PROP. 209, EFFECTS ON WOMEN.

Byline: Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writer

More than a month after David Duke's Cal State Northridge appearance sparked noisy protests, politicians and educators argued over Proposition 209 during another debate on campus Thursday.

This time it was quieter, even though it did have its share of disruption.

Thursday's event in the Grand Salon of the University Student Union attracted little press, drew slightly more than a hundred people and was interrupted only briefly by a crowd of student protesters who hoisted a black coffin on their shoulders and chanted against the initiative during a symbolic funeral procession.

A panel of six, including City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, state Sen. Cathie Wright, R-Simi Valley, and several Cal State Northridge professors, were invited by the University's Commission on the Status of Women to discuss the initiative's impact on women.

Proposition 209, which would end racial and gender preferences in public education as well as in state and local government hiring and contracting, drew sharp criticism from Goldberg who said women and minorities have not yet achieved parity with white males in employment and education.

``It's an appropriate thing to have this debate on Halloween because this is the biggest trick of all,'' said Goldberg. ``Its purpose is nothing more than to divide and to end the progress that has been made in reducing the barriers that keep women and people of color from getting to higher places in this society.''

However, Wright, who supports Proposition 209, said women don't need any special favors. She described her ascent from a coal mining town in Pennsylvania where she received a two-year community college education, to her current status as 16-year veteran of the California Legislature.

``I'm not a university graduate, I have no Ph.D., but where am I? I'm in the state Senate,'' said Wright, who has served on the state Commission on the Status of Women. ``Why do you need special treatment, nobody said life was fair . . . what you want is equal opportunity. You want to be successful? Work for it. Nobody wants to have special handouts and that's what you're asking for.''

William Brown, a CSUN economics professor, said otherwise qualified students from poor white families have been rejected because of affirmative action policies.

``Is that consistent with your values?'' said Brown, a Prop. 209 supporter. ``It's inconsistent with mine. I think people should be judged as individuals, not as members of a group.''

Political science Professor Leonard Billet, who also supports Proposition 209, said he doesn't believe the initiative is even a women's issue.

``Women lawyers participated in drawing up the wording of Prop. 209, women lawyers are co-chairs of Prop. 209 and I doubt Senator Wright or Councilwoman Goldberg are going to go back into the kitchen if Prop. 209 passes.''

But panelist Paul Rockwell, from the San Francisco group Angry White Guys for Affirmative Action, said most people overlook the fact that white males had their own kind of privilege during the Vietnam War.

``Black and brown kids from working-class neighborhoods were sent to die abroad, while white college men were building their careers through one form of affirmative action - deferment,'' said Rockwell, an Oakland librarian. ``It's the extension of affirmative action to our sisters and people of color that causes a backlash. I support affirmative action for those who are still left out.''

Halfway into the debate, while panelist Pan African Studies Professor James Dennis was speaking, the mock funeral procession of about 50 student protesters led by student body president Vladimir Cerna marched noisily around the Grand Salon, a debate hall with giant frame-glass windows.

``We're trying to show that Proposition 209 is the death of affirmative action and everything that comes along with it,'' said Joaquin Macias, a fifth-year junior and an organizer of the procession. ``It's the death of opportunity for all the organizations that have come about because of affirmative action.''

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Prop. 209 opponents carry a coffin to symbolize the death of affirmative action if the measure passes Tuesday.

(2) State Sen. Cathie Wright touts Prop. 209 in a debate on affirmative action Thursday at Cal State Northridge.

David R. Crane/Daily News