On discarding affirmative action: An address to the regents of the University of California

Editor's Note: On 20 July 1995 the Board of Regents of the University of California voted to end the use of race, gender, and ethnicity in student admissions and in faculty and staff hiring. Before the vote, thirty-one “elected and other public figures” were scheduled to address the Regents briefly on the subject of affirmation action. Governor Pete Wilson (ex officio president of the Board) was allocated several of the thirty-one slots. Among those he invited to speak was NAS member John M. Ellis. We present Professor Ellis’s remarks below.