NYTimes: California's Equity Agenda Is a Smashing Success

Of course, it's no surprise that it is STEM professors, especially older STEM professors who haven't been brought up steeped in the SJW movement, who are leading the charge. Many, though not all, still have some connection to the real world through their work. 

Update: the open letter to restore standardized tests in STEM admissions at UC crossed 850 signatures

Still 7/9 UC Math chairs

37 STEM chairs

We even have an engineering dean https://t.co/GToScYanZz

— Neetu Arnold (@neetu_arnold) May 28, 2026

The UC system used to be among the best in the world, and many professors there are still under the misimpression that it must remain that way and not just hand diplomas to morons. 

As you would expect, when STEM professors started agitating to reimpose admissions standards, the left went insane. What about EQUITY?! As with the New York Board of Regents, these people believe that asking minorities to do well in math and reading is equivalent to demanding that fish learn how to climb trees. 

This op-ed can’t be real:

“Students on University of California campuses may struggle with basic math, but they are graduating at record rates.”

“What has made the University of California exceptional is its commitment to increase access without sacrificing excellence.” pic.twitter.com/lfhgPtPirI

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) September 16, 2026

Miriam Pawel is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and is writing a book on the roaring success of the University of California in opening its doors to people who can't do math. She was handed the keys to the NYT kingdom, otherwise known as the opinion page, to spew nonsense, because printing nonsense is their specialty. 

When the University of California eliminated the SAT requirement for admission in 2021, U.C.L.A. saw a significant jump in applications from high-achieving Black and Latino students, for whom the standardized tests had been a barrier. “We are enrolling one of the most academically accomplished and diverse classes in our history,” the admissions director wrote. Since then, applications have risen at all nine undergraduate campuses, the most prestigious have become increasingly selective, and the university retains and graduates students at record rates.

Yet just five years later, the University of California is embroiled again in a very public battle over whether to reinstate the SAT. Faculty, whose 2020 recommendation to retain the test was overruled, have led the charge. In a widely circulated letter and opinion piece (both edited with the help of artificial intelligence), a math professor who organized the campaign blamed the test-blind admissions policy for a troubling increase in undergraduates who lack basic skills.

Math literacy is a real issue, not only in California, and not only since the elimination of the SAT for admissions. The argument that reinstituting the standardized test will rectify the math crisis, however, obscures a more fundamental debate over the mission of this elite public university and the longstanding tension between its twin goals of excellence and access.

The University of California is an educational juggernaut that has helped propel the state to its status as the world’s fourth-largest economy. It has arguably made its most important contribution not in Nobel Prizes, patents and scientific breakthroughs but in the lives of those not born into privilege. At a time of obscene wealth and inequality, that role has never been more important. The SAT fight is a proxy for a far more complex challenge: the university’s responsibility to remain true to its founding mission, crucial if the Golden State is to maintain its reputation as a land of opportunity and dreams.

Now I don't happen to believe asking minority students to do math is like asking fish to climb trees. I also don't believe that handing out unearned credentials is a mark of success; it is a sign of degeneracy, where symbols become the only reality, and reality itself is tossed out the window as inconvenient. 

Link: https://t.co/GoRHP7tR8W

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) September 16, 2026

If the problem is that an unusually large number of minority students can't do basic math, the solution is not to pretend that this isn't the case and call it "justice." It's to teach them math, or at least direct them to life paths where math proficiency is not required. 

We don't need engineers with certificates that say "qualified," and results say "bridge collapsed." Pawel either thinks bridges collapsing is a price worth paying for the piece of paper and the applause given to underachievers, or she lives in a fantasy land where ability is determined by credentials alone. 

I vote for the latter. Liberals love credentials. As long as we all agree that something is true, reality be damned.

What has made the University of California exceptional is its commitment to increase access without sacrificing excellence. In recent years, California has proudly defied a national trend: On average, about 40 percent of its students are the first in their families to attend a four-year college. More than half qualify for free tuition. The percentages of underrepresented students have crept up, through a variety of initiatives. The California Dream Act gave undocumented students access to financial aid, as well as in-state tuition. Students on University of California campuses may struggle with basic math, but they are graduating at record rates.

Liberals always speak in aspirational terms that touch our hearts and avoid our rational minds, and they also live in a world where touching hearts is all that matters, at least in addition to having a nice, largely unearned income. They speak of equity from their expensive salons and discuss its importance at galas where they applaud each other for thinking the right things and spending enough time browbeating the hoi polloi for being concerned with actual results. 

This is off-topic, but I think it captures the mindset. Kathleen Kennedy, the woman who killed Star Wars, is the perfect example of this mindset. She has objectively squandered billions of dollars and ruined a financial and creative juggernaut because she cares more about pushing the leftist message than doing her job of entertaining people and making Disney money. 

The results didn't matter. The symbolism did. (NSFW)

It's the same mindset. If it takes destroying everything to create (fake) social justice, it's a small price to pay. 

And if you do, all the Right people will applaud.