7

Therefore, minority applicante to medical schools cannot fairly compete
with white applicants when prior educational achivement is the predominate
criterion for admission. Minority student grade point
average
and MCAT scores reflect a level of educational,
disdvantage which cannot be
attributed to economic disadvantage alone. Lower -
whites do not share
this disadvantage as a class.

If the 1954 Brown decision ordering a end to segregated schools
had been enforced over the last 23 years, and if racial discrimination
in American education and employment, had been eliminated, then perhaps the special
admissions program at UC Davis would not be needed. But while race remains the
central factor in determining life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
for 13% of the nation's population, the programs like the one at Davis
are not only permissible, they are in fact mandatory.

The California court's assumption that special, non-racial
treatment of all disadvantaged students would remedy the disparity between
the numbers of white and non-white physicians is simply not correct.

Since the educational disadvantage is rooted in race, cognizance
of race in the admissions process is a legitimte duty of an admissions
officer or committee, is necessary to address compelling state and
national interests. and is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.

The court may well ask: was Alan Bakke excluded because 16
minorites were included? The answer is a resounding no!

In 1973, Alan Bakke was one of 26, 367 unsuccessful applicants
to American medical schools. That same year, the same schools admitted
1,297 minorities. If all the mnority students had been rejected, there
is no way Alan Bakke can insist he would not have been among the