Vincent Sarich is a physical anthropologist at Berkeley who pioneered in the use of molecular evidence to measure the relative degree of biochemical similarity between humans and various other animals. Employing the "molecular clock hypothesis," Sarich (with Berkeley biochemist Allan Wilson) estimated that the last common ancestor of chimps and humans lived much more recently than had previously been thought. After a period of fierce resistance from fossil experts, the Wilson/Sarich date and methodology became widely accepted. The accomplishment established Sarich's reputation as a major figure in human evolution studies and as a formidable controversialist.

Sarich came to the attention of a different audience when he published a paper in the California Monthly (Berkeley's alumni magazine) with the provocative title Making Racism Official at Cal.48 His thesis was that Berkeley's undergraduate admissions policies systematically discriminate against whites. Whites comprise about 60% of high school graduates and 65% of those academically eligible for admission to the University of California, but they comprised only 34% of fall 1989 freshman registrants at Berkeley. For Asians the corresponding numbers were 8%, 20%, and 23%; for Hispanics, 20%, 7%, and 23%; and for Blacks, 8%, 2.5%, and 12%.49 In plain language, Asians were hugely overrepresented in the freshman class in comparison to their share of the general population; Hispanics and Blacks were hugely overrepresented in comparison to their representation in the population deemed academically qualified on the basis of high school performance; and Whites were underrepresented in comparison to both their share of the general population and of the population deemed academically qualified.

The social and political factors that produced these figures are no mystery. Like other universities, Berkeley has been under strong moral and legal pressure to increase the percentage of Black and Hispanic students at least to their level in the population. At the same time, AsianAmerican groups have vigorously and effectively protested the "discrimination" Berkeley has practiced by not admitting Asians on the basis of their academic performance. This mix of pressures has produced a tacit policy of population parity (generously measured) for Blacks and Hispanics, and admission by grades and test scores for Asians. Somebody has to pay the price.50

Sarich argued that the admissions policy had created a two-tiered student body, "separable on racial/ethnic grounds, and increasingly divergent from one another academically, socially, and in ethos."51 The consequences include increased racial tension, discouragement of the pursuit of excellence among all groups, and the decay of a great public educational institution. Sarich concluded that the costs of Berkeley's racial policy "are obvious and large; the benefits, if any, difficult to perceive, and certainly undocumented."52 Dinesh D'Souza made similar arguments, using Berkeley as the prime example of race-based admissions policies.53

Sarich provoked hostility not just because he concluded that the costs of the university's admissions policy outweigh its benefits but because he insisted publicly that real academic costs exist. The university's official position is that policies aimed at achieving (racial) diversity do not sacrifice (academic) excellence.54 Berkeley officials in particular insist that the mean Scholastic Aptitude Test score for entering freshmen has steadily increased, arguing that this figure establishes that academic quality and racial diversity have improved in tandem.55 Advocacy groups that support affirmative action are still more vehement in disputing any suggestion that less qualified students are being admitted to meet racial targets. Anyone who wants a relatively peaceful life in Berkeley does not seek occasions for asserting a different interpretation of the facts.

Sarich's admission paper did not spark that genuine debate over academic quality and diversity desired by Katharine Bartlett.56 Instead, it led to a retaliatory demonstration directed at disrupting his teaching in the introductory anthropology course.57 As a scientist who made his reputation studying molecules rather than tribes, and as a political conservative (by university standards), Sarich is hardly in the mainstream of anthropology. Moreover, he teaches an "advocacy course," in which students get a heavy dose of the Sarich viewpoint. In a nutshell, the Sarich viewpoint is that the logic of evolutionary biology should be extended to questions of human nature and social policy.58 This approach is highly controversial because the political left regards anything reminiscent of "social Darwinism" as pseudoscientific propaganda for the status quo. Although Sarich's teaching was popular with many students, there were also continual complaints, articulated especially in courses in Women's Studies.59 The publicity given the admissions paper suggested to these critics that Sarich's philosophy might have tangible political consequences. Since Anthropology I is a required course for majors in a field that appeals to many students having intense interests in the politics of race and gender, the mix was explosive.

The explosion came in November 1990, when more than fifty students invaded Sarich's classroom to demonstrate against his "racist, sexist, and homophobic" opinions. The opinions in question were culled from the admissions paper and from lecture transcripts that Sarich made available to students as a study guide. The most frequently quoted statement was Sarich's comment in the admissions paper that excellence and diversity are at cross purposes because "unfortunately, the levels of qualification, preparation, or motivation are not randomly distributed with respect to race and ethnicity."60 Sarich had added that he attributed relatively poor academic performance by Blacks and Hispanics to cultural influences, not genetic differences, but this important qualification did not seem to mitigate the offense and was subsequently ignored.

Sarich had also said in his lectures that human brain size steadily increased as human intelligence evolved. A correlation of brain size and intelligence in the remote past is uncontroversial and probably an essential premise of the theory that humans evolved from small-brained apes,61 but Sarich offended contemporary sensitivities by arguing that the correlation might still exist.62 He went so far as to suggest that it would be appropriate to conduct research on whether differences in male and female mental capabilities are related to the smaller average size of women's brains.63 Finally, Sarich had said in his lectures that homosexuality in humans is culturally rare and not genetically determined because natural selection would not foster a gene for a nonreproductive sexual orientation.64

The demonstration was resisted by many of the students actually enrolled in the class,65 who defended Sarich (or at least their right to hear him teach) vigorously. The point at issue between the enrolled students and the demonstrators was nicely captured in an exchange reported in the campus disciplinary report:66 One student yelled, "How can you argue about his teachings if you don't really know what he says?"67 to which a demonstrator responded, "How can we have intelligent discussion if he doesn't believe we belong in school?"68 The demonstrators denounced minority students in the class as traitors for listening to Sarich. A teaching assistant tried to mollify the demonstrators by proposing a debate, but they shouted down the invitation, with one remarking that "FDR wouldn't debate Hitler."69 There was no physical violence, but the uproar and distraction finally forced Sarich to give up his attempt to finish the class.

Berkeley's newly installed Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien issued a statement saying that the disruption would be investigated with an eye towards disciplinary action, but also that there would be an investigation of Sarich's teaching if allegations of discriminatory remarks were made in a proper manner. Members of the leaderless Anthropology Department also took tentative steps in the direction of investigating Sarich.70 Faculty senate committees were horrified that responsible authorities reacted to a classroom disruption by proposing an investigation of the victim71 and issued statements deploring the demonstration as a violation of academic freedom. In the end the demonstrators received only meaningless warnings as punishment, and nobody investigated Sarich.

The principal aftermath of the incident was a public forum a month later, at which Sarich defended his views against criticism from other faculty members. On this occasion the diversity issue became entwined with an ongoing debate among Berkeley's biochemistry professors concerning the materialist reductionism that dominates this branch of science. Biochemistry Professor Richard Strohman complained that "the lay public is under the impression that DNA controls everything."72 Strohman threw cold water on this scientific hubris, implying that speculation about genetic causes of human behavior goes way beyond what science can establish.

Sarich defended his emphasis on the genetic role in human behavior by pointing out that most other anthropologists slight genetics and attribute everything to culture. He also added his own voice to the criticism of reductionism, complaining that "[s]cientists act like people are controlled by a puppeteer.... They tend to argue, 'Is the puppeteer your genes or is the puppeteer society?' You never hear about an individual's will."73 The reason we never hear about it is that free will is a meaningless concept to a materialist reductionist, who (by definition) assumes that all events have material causes. If Sarich really means that people have the power to change their traits of character by an exercise of free will, then to that extent he is, by his own definition, a creationist.74

The ultimate judgment on Sarich from the anthropological left was delivered at the public forum by his departmental colleague, Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes. Asserting the need to protect students from false teaching because of their "impressionable minds,"75 she dismissed Sarich's theories from the realm of science in precisely the language Sarich would use in speaking of creationism: "[I]t isn't bad science, it isn't science at all."76 Professor Sarich, meet Professor Bishop.

Epilogue

The moral of my stories is not that there are pressures to conform in the university. Of course there are such pressures, as there always were. A university is not Hyde Park Corner, where cranks of every description hold forth from their soap boxes. It is meant to be a place where knowledge is gained through research and then transmitted in classrooms. It is also a place where ideas and ideologies are taken seriously, which implies that they may be expounded passionately. Expression of opinion is on the whole free in most universities, in the strictly formal sense that disciplinary action against either faculty or students for offensive statements is rare. This does not mean, however, that all opinions or theories are treated equally. First, freedom of expression itself can be used against dissidents, in the form of protest demonstrations, hecklers, and strident editorials in campus newspapers. Students may apply political standards when rating the teaching quality of their professors on forms which administrators use in deciding who gets rehired or promoted.

The most important pressures towards conformity, however, arise from the very nature of the academic enterprise. Any academic institution endorses some fundamental doctrines that its ruling authorities consider to be true and works mightily to transmit these doctrines to the minds of students as knowledge. The Evolutionary Biology Department teaches that the Darwinian theory of evolution is true, not just that it appeals to some people who speak for the interpretive community that calls itself "science." The liberal arts departments teach--or used to teach--that something called Western Civilization has a literary and intellectual tradition of unique excellence. Persons who are skilled at propagating knowledge are given good grades, graduate fellowships, and tenured professorships. Persons who try to advance beliefs that are contrary to received knowledge are considered to be ignorant, and so they face heavy discouragement. The established academic authorities consider it their duty to cure ignorance, not to reward it.

This encouragement of knowledge and discrimination against ignorance is proper and even inevitable in principle, but it may be oppressive in practice. Unconventional theories might be true, or at least stimulating, and they might offend by rousing the more conventional members of the university community from their dogmatic slumbers. Wherever we find power, we also find prejudice. Aspiring scholars who consider themselves to be victims of prejudice are not necessarily helpless, however. If they have influence of one kind or another, they might persuade the university's ruling bodies to give them academic departments of their own, in which they will have the power to decide what qualifies as knowledge and what should be disqualified as prejudice. If their influence grows, they might eventually be able to transform the university itself.

The battle to control the university's intellectual agenda is no recent innovation. For much of the nineteenth century most universities were church-sponsored, and as such they did not willingly give a platform to atheists or sponsors of free love. Later in the nineteenth century, scientific naturalism began to replace Christian theism as the governing ideology. One consequence of this development was that Darwinian evolution acquired the status of knowledge, and students who did not accept it as such were classified as ignorant. That a professor of science would tell a class that he did not believe in naturalistic evolution became unthinkable, and a university that tolerated that sort of nonsense would have cause to fear a loss of academic status. This fear explains the determination of University of Alabama administrators to exclude Phillip Bishop's mild dissent.

Ironically, the prestigious institutions to which the Alabama administrators looked for approval are themselves in turmoil and possibly on the verge of another transformation in their governing philosophy. Scientific naturalism still reigns supreme among senior faculty and in the natural science departments, but in the liberal arts and social sciences a relativistic pluralism is gaining ground. The historian Page Smith, whose description of the university's selective open-mindedness began this Review Essay, wrote that the nonscientific departments in the recent past suffered from "physics envy." No more. The newly fashionable post-Modernist model of knowledge is not based on scientific empiricism, but on literary criticism, and its philosopher kings are Richard Rorty, Stanley Fish, and Jacques Derrida. Knowledge in this model is relative to culture, and no single picture of reality has absolute authority over rival cultural understandings.

As new groups have begun to assert themselves, the philosophy of cultural relativism has made it easy to justify the institution of advocacy departments, in subjects like ethnic studies, women's studies, and now gay and lesbian studies. The premise of these departments is that the groups in question have been silenced and stigmatized, and therefore they need to find their own voices and assert their own theories of knowledge. This premise implies a certain homogeneity of ideological approach. One does not expect to find many professors of women's studies who favor restrictions on abortion, although many women take that position. Just as the Evolutionary Biology Department by definition rejects the creationist, women's studies by definition excludes the antifeminist.

The Sarich incident is an example of how a theory of knowledge that has wide support in the university can generate bitter conflict if it is taken to its logical conclusion before the wrong audience. The theory in question is that scientific investigation is the basis of all real knowledge and that science ought to be free to investigate all subjects. But what if the investigation seems to point in directions that many consider to be profoundly offensive? Is it a violation of academic freedom to discourage a professor from conducting research into the relationship between brain size and intelligence, or from trying to convince a class of undergraduates that such research is likely to lead to interesting and controversial conclusions? Scientific naturalism presupposes a fundamental distinction between fact and value, which implies that the results of scientific research will not necessarily be pleasing to any group's cherished values, be they religious or political. But the conclusions of scientific researchers might be erroneous and might cause tangible harm before their error is exposed. Should a university community require its scientists to exercise restraint when dealing with sensitive subjects, in view of this potential for harm?

No one can answer such questions adequately in the abstract. They are especially difficult to answer in the context of a contemporary university, where the nature and even the very existence of objective knowledge is in question. If the university is dedicated both to the pursuit of knowledge and to the realization of equality, which goal has priority in the event of a conflict? The founding document of our national tradition states that "all men [we would now say all persons] are created equal." This means that, despite their differing abilities and attainments, all persons are of equal importance in the sight of their creator, who is the author of values. Human equality in the Declaration of Independence sense is a sacred dogma, and as such it can never be discredited by any scientific discovery or rationalistic argument.

But suppose men and women are not created, and instead evolved by some haphazard process from animals. Suppose that dogmas exist no more, because the author of values has been exposed as an impostor and all persons must now decide for themselves what they will believe. On what foundation, then, can human equality rest? Is equality a fact everyone can see, a scientific hypothesis open for testing, or a story that appeals to certain kinds of listeners? It isn't easy to see how either literary theory or unfettered scientific research into human capacities can be trusted to support the ideals of equality to which the contemporary university is formally dedicated. People still have their sacred dogmas, of course, even if they do not call them that. They just do not know what makes them sacred.

The status of human equality is not a puzzle for me. That is because I still believe that humanity was created, and therefore I understand that there are moral axioms that take precedence over the temporarily alluring products of rationalistic disciplines. To me, the most interesting problem in philosophy is how we are to recognize the axioms, so we know what to protect from the indiscriminate corrosiveness of skeptical analysis. It is a tough problem, even when you understand how to ask the question. If you think you can build values on reason, and have adopted a model of reason that consigns value judgments to the realm of subjective belief, you do not have a prayer.

Notes

* B.A. 1983, Dartmouth College.
** Jefferson E. Peyser Professor of Law, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley. A.B. 1961, Harvard University; J.D. 1965, University of Chicago Law School. return to text

1. Page Smith, "Killing the Spirit", Higher Education in America 5 (1990). Page Smith, the author of a famous multivolume history of the United States, retired in 1974 from his professorship at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is one of many persons, formerly regarded as very liberal critics of American society and its universities, whose voice sounds conservative in today's atmosphere. return to text

2. See Eugene D. Genovese, "Heresy, Yes-Sensitivity, No", The New Republic, Apr 15, 1991, at 30. return to text

3. See C. Vann Woodward, "Freedom & The Universities", N.Y. Rev. Books, July 18, 1991, at 32. return to text

4. The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour: The Big Chill (PBS television broadcast, June 17-21, 1991) (transcripts Nos. 4056-4060), available in LEXIS, Nexis Library, SCRIPT File. return to text

5. See Katherine T. Bartlett, "Some Factual Correctness About Political Correctness". Wall St. J., June 6, 1991,at A19. return to text

6. See id.return to text

7. Id. return to text

8. Id. return to text

9. Id. return to text

10. Except when otherwise noted, the source for the facts relating to the "creationist" story is the opinion by Judge Guin in Bishop v. Aronov, 732 F. Supp. 1562 (N.D. Ala. 1990) [hereinafter Bishop I, rev'd, 926 F.2d 1066 (11th Cir. 1991), cert. denied, 112 S. Ct. 3026 (1992). Although the Court of Appeals reversed Judge Guin's legal conclusions, it adopted his findings of fact, which were based upon stipulations and undisputed affidavits. See Bishop v. Aronov, 926 F.2d 1066, 1068 (11th Cir. 1991) [Hereinafter Bishop II], cert denied, 112 S. Ct. 3026 (1992). Professor Michael McConnell of the University of Chicago Law School filed a petition for certiorari in the case which refers to some other details from the undisputed record that are not mentioned in the district court and court of appeals opinions. See Petition for a Writ of Certiorari at 2-9,filed sub nom. Bishop v. Delchamps, 112 S. CL 294 (1991) (No. 91-286), cert. denied 112 S. Ct. 3026 (1992) Hereinafter Delchamps Petition]. return to text

11. Bishop II, 926 F.2d at 1068. return to text

12. Id. return to text

13. Id. return to text

14. Id. return to text

15. Bishop I. 732 F. Supp. at 1563. return to text

16. Id. at 1564. return to text

17. The facts in this paragraph are taken from the undisputed record in the case as summarized by Professor Michael McConnell in Delchamps Petition, supra note 10, at 2-9. return to text

18. Id. at 6. return to text

19. In Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971), the Supreme Court set out a famous three part test for determining whether a state statute is consistent with the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. "First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion; finally, the statute must not foster `an excessive government entanglement with religion.'" Id. at 612-13 (citations omitted). return to text

20. Delchamps Petition, supra note 10, at 6. return to text

21. See Bishop 1, 732 F. Supp. at 1564. return to text

22. Id. (quoting the disciplinary memorandum sent by Westerfield to Bishop). return to text

23. See id. Bishop used a blind grading system, and so in theory the student's identity would have no effect on grading. The district court conditioned its approval of Bishop's practices on the requirement that he continue to use a blind grading system. See id. at 1569. Of course, no similar requirement was imposed upon professors who express personal opinions of other kinds that students might also be tempted to mimic in order to get a good grade. return to text

24. Id at 1564. return to text

25. See id at 1565 (citing Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981)). return to text

26. See Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 276 (1981). Although the district court was apparently unaware of it, another state university had followed the Widmar principle in a controversy very similar to the Bishop case. University of Georgia Professor Henry F. Schaefer, an internationally famous quantum chemist, gave voluntary, after-hours lectures on campus for students at which he explained his Christian faith and his doubts about Darwinism. Other faculty members demanded that the University stop allowing Schaefer to use its facilities for religious speech, but the University's President ruled that Schaefer had freedom to express his thoughts on campus property since the lectures were not university-sponsored. The ruling was not challenged in court, and Schaefer continued to speak freely. See Motion for Leave to File Brief Amici Curiae and Brief of Dr. Henry F. Schaefer 111, Dr. Gerald R. Bergman, Dr. Clinton H. Graves, and Dr. Byron R. Johnson as Amici Curiae in Support of the Petition for Certiorari at 2, Bishop v. Delchamps, 60 U.S.L.W. 3292 (U.S. Oct. 15, 1991) (No. 91-286), cert. denied 112 S. CL 3026 (1992). return to text

27. Bishop 11, 926 F.2d at 1078. return to text

28. Senior Circuit Judge Floyd R. Gibson of the Eighth Circuit was sitting on the Eleventh Circuit by designation. return to text

29. 484 U.S. 260 (1988). return to text

30. See id at 276. return to text

31. See Bishop II, 926 F.2d at 1071. return to text

32. Id. at 1074 (quoting Kuhlmeier. 484 U.S. at 273) (bracketed phrase "[or professor]'' added in Bishop II opinion). return to text

33. In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 514 (1969), the Supreme Court held that school authorities could not forbid a student to wear a black armband (protesting the Vietnam War) to school, absent a showing that the forbidden conduct would substantially interfere with the work of the school or impinge upon the rights of other students. return to text

34. 385 U.S. 589, 603 (1967). return to text

35. Bishop II. 926 F.2d at 1075. return to text

36. Id. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York took a different position on the judicial protection of academic freedom in Levin v. Harleston, 770 F. Supp. 895 (S.D.N.Y. 1991). Michael Levin is a philosophy professor at the City College of the City University of New York who has published various provocative statements on racial issues, in particular claiming that "on average, blacks are significantly less intelligent than whites ." Id at 902. As a consequence his classes were disrupted by demonstrators, the college president appointed a committee to investigate his writings with a view to possible disciplinary action, and administration wrote to students in his introductory philosophy class that they would create a "shadow section" for students who wished to take the course but avoid Professor Levin. Id. at 903-08. District Judge Conboy held that appointment of the investigating committee and the institution of "shadow sections" violated Levin's free speech and tenure rights. See id at 919-25. The court permanently enjoined the college from investigating Levin's writings and also ordered the administration to take reasonable steps to prevent disruption of his classes. See id at 927. The Levin case is distinguishable from the cases discussed in this Review Essay, however, because it did not involve the authority of academic administration to control what a professor says in the classroom. Levin apparently did not introduce his views on racial issues into his philosophy courses. The controversy involved solely his out-of-class writings. See generally id at 899-903. return to text

37. Bishop I. 732 F. Supp. al 1568 (quoting Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 281 (1981) (Stevens, J., concurring)). return to text

38. See id at IS67-68. return to text

39. Bishop II. 926 F.2d at 107H72 (citation omitted). return to text

40. Bishop I. 732 F. Supp. at 1565. return to text

41. Bishop II. 926 F.2d at 1077. Edwards v. Aguillard held unconstitutional a Louisiana statute requiring balanced treatment in science classes for "creation science" and "evolution science" on the ground that the Legislature's purpose "was clearly to advance the religious viewpoint that a supernatural being created humankind." 482 U.S. at 591. return to text

42. George G. Simpson, The Meaning of Evolution 345 (rev. ed. 1967). return to text

43. Bishop II, 926 F.2d al 1076 (footnote omitted). return to text

44. Phillip E. Johnson, Darwin on Trial (1991). return to text

45. Id. at 110. return to text

46. Id. at 14. return to text

47. Except where otherwise indicated, the source for information about Vincent Sarich and the class disruption at Berkeley is Paul Selvin, "The Raging Bull of Berkeley", 251 Science 368 (1991). return to text

48. Vincent Sarich, "Making Racism Official at Cal." Cal Monthly, Sept. 1990, at 17. return to text

49. Id. return to text

50. Berkeley Chancellor Ira M. Heyman apologized publicly in April 1989 for pursuing admissions policies aimed at increasing minority representation that had the unintended effect of disadvantaging Asians who obtained high scores on aptitude tests and high grades in high school. Berkeley promised to stop discriminating against high-aptitude Asians without otherwise
abandoning its goal of ensuring racial balance in the student body. See Dinesh D'Souza, Illiberal Education 30 & n.30 (1991) [hereinafter cited by page number]. return to text

51. Sarich, supra note 48, at 18. return to text

52. Id. return to text

53. See, pp. 24-58 (detailing admissions policies and their effects on individual students and the campus al large). return to text

54. See, e.g., Letter from Vincent Sarich, Professor, University of California at Berkeley, to William French Smith, Regent, University of California 3 (Apr. 4, 1990) (on file with author) (quoting university administration officials as having said "these achievements are not at the expense of quality" and "everyone admitted to the school is 'University of California-eligible'"). return to text

55. See "Committee on Admissions and Enrollment, Freshman Admissions at Berkeley: A Policy for the 1990's and Beyond" (Karabel Report) (May 1989) (committee report, on file with author). The Karabel Report states that "[the] great accomplishment of the overall admissions policy has, in our view, been its capacity to continue the process of diversification of Berkeley's student body at the same time it hu maintained and even raised the academic level of the freshman class." Id at 26, quoted in Letter from Vincent Sarich to William French Smith, supra note 54, at 5. Sarich's article in the California Monthly attributed the rise in mean SAT scores to a continuing rise in scores of admitted white and Asians (about 60% of admittees) during the 1980s. In other words, the rise in mean academic indicator scores does not contradict Sarich's claim that the class is increasingly composed of distinct groups whose academic qualifications barely overlap. On the other hand, former Berkeley Chancellor Ira M. Heyman in a letter of response noted among other things that Sarich presented no evidence about how well various categories of students perform once admitted. See `Letter from Ira M. Heyman, Chancellor, University of California at Berkeley, to William French Smith, Regent, University of California" 5 (May 9, 1990) (on file with author). Heyman cited figures to support the conclusion that "the GPAs of underrepresented students are much higher than one would expect from Professor Sarich's observations." Id. return to text

56. See supra text accompanying note 5 -9. Ideally, such a debate would not be limited to the relatively sterile issue of whether efforts at racial diversity in admissions are in principle a good thing. In the contemporary social climate an institution like the University of California simply must use its resources for the benefit of all the major racial and ethnic groups of the state. The use of race as factor in admissions is like the use of medicine: taken for the right purpose and in the right amount, medicine alleviates illness without devastating side effects. To determine the right medicine and the night dosage, it is necessary to discuss honestly the underlying illness and the actual effects of the treatment. return to text

57. See T. Christian Miller, "Students Clash in Anthro", The Daily Californian. Nov. 8 1990, at 1. return to text

58. Professor Sarich generously provided me with transcripts of his Anthropology I lecture and other material relating to the course content. His central thesis is that, while most educated people agree that Darwinian evolution is responsible for the human body, they refuse to acknowledge the implications of Darwinian theory in the area of human behavior, politics, and ethics. Most left/liberal intellectuals, including even leading evolutionary biologists, are essentially "creationists" when it comes to human affairs. They have merely substituted human society for God as the creator of human nature. In other words, they deny that evolution has formed human nature in important ways and imagine instead that our nature is a blank slate upon which culture can write at will.
Specifically, these humanistic creationists refuse to acknowledge that human inequality rather than equality is the norm, because "The evolutionary process continues to run on variation and that variation must be functionally significant" Vincent Sarich, Notes, Lecture No. 3, at 1 (Aug. 29, 1990) (on file with author). This leads them into absurdities such as imagining that male/female behavioral differences have no biological bases, or that it is possible to achieve an artificial equality of outcome by social coercion. Such utopian projects end in unfreedom (and also inequality) because They ignore the constraints imposed by evolution. Specific applications of this general theme are addressed throughout the course. return to text

59. Sarich's teaching materials include a paper that was written in 1986 by a freshman woman who was taking Women's Studies 10 and Anthropology I (with Sarich) at the same time and naively wrote a paper for the former course defending Sarich against charges of sexism. The teaching assistant who graded the paper could not restrain her fury that anyone would say anything good about Sarich and covered the paper with heavy-handed political comments. See Vincent Sarich, Lecture Materials 27-34 (1990) (on file with author). return to text

60. See, e.g.. Miller, supra note 57, at 11 (quoting Sarich, supra note 48, at 18). return to text

61. Here is what Darwin himself wrote on the subject: As the various mental faculties were gradually developed, the brain would almost certainly have become larger. No one, I presume, doubts that the large size of the brain in man, relatively to his body, in comparison with that of the gorilla or orang, is closely connected with his higher mental powers.... On the other hand, no one supposes that the intellect of any two animals or of any two men can be accurately gauged by the cubic contents of their skulls....
The belief that there exists in man some close relation between the size of the brain and the development of the intellectual faculties is supported by the comparison of the skulls of savage and civilised races, of ancient and modern people, and by the analogy of the whole vertebrate series. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 145-46 (photo reprint, Princeton University Press, 1981) (1871). return to text

62. In one lecture Sarich made his point about brain size with a pungent review of Stephen J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (1981): This book received The Pulitzer Prize and was spoken of approvingly by just aboutl everyone except Professor Sarich who thinks that the book is mostly nonsense. It is particularly nonsensical in its extensive castigation of his professional ancestors in the 19th and early 20th centuries who were fascinated with the idea [of] variation in brain size of human beings and its significance. These individuals measured heads both externally and (after death) internally.... Gould spends about half of his book denigrating this activity as at best useless and at worst intensively racist and sexist.... [I]f you read only that book . ., you would never know that the human brain had increased (tripled) in size over the last [two] million years There is not a hint in that book that that happened. Why? Professor Sarich thinks that that fact is not mentioned because the only way that the human brain could have increased in size over lime is if somehow larger brains [conferred] ...fitness on their possessors. If they conferred greater fitness on their possessors in the past, then they would also (presumably) do so in the present. This would invalidate the entire thesis of Gould's book. Vincent Sarich, Notes, Lecture No. 16, at 4 (0ct. 3, 1990) (on file with author) (significant typographical errors in original transcript corrected by author). return to text

63. Offensive or not, studies of male/female differences in brain size and structure are very much in the scientific mainstream. For example, a 1991 article in Science by Ann Gibbons observes that:, [T]here is now a solid body of data indicating sex differences in the brains of almost every mammalian family examined so far: rodents, birds, monkeys, and-most recently and most intriguingly--human beings.... Men's brains are on average larger than women's by 15%-about Twice the difference in average body size between men and women. Ann Gibbons, "The Brain as `Sexual Organ,'" 253 Science 957, 957-58 (1991). Attempts to explain behavioral differences between men and women on the basis of brain anatomy are controversial, but researcher "speculate that [brain differences] have roofs in strong evolutionary pressures on the sexes during prehistory when the brain was expanding rapidly." Id al 958. A companion article by Constance Holden began with the observation that "a large body of evidence, accumulated over many decades, suggest[s] that there are some differences in cognition and perception between men and women." Constance Holden, "Is `Gender Gap' narrowing?" 253 Science 9S9, 959 ( 1991). The subject is "something of a political minefield," however, and all specific claims are disputed and doubtful. Id. return to text

64. The Sarich viewpoint on homosexuality is that heterosexuality promotes reproduction, and therefore is more natural in evolutionary terms. Homosexuality is therefore unlikely to have a genetic cause. In other cultures it is rare as an exclusive adult predisposition, although adolescent homosexual experimentation is common. Sarich explained contemporary male homosexuality as growing out of the fact that some males are more inclined to the feminine side of the spectrum of male/female differences. Males having relatively more feminine emotional natures might feel less need to complement themselves with a heterosexual relationship, and might experience greater difficulty in fulfilling culturally imposed models of masculine behavior. In most cultures adolescents lend to grow out of homosexual tendencies because "[s]ocial completeness as an adult requires complementation," and "[I]t is set up evolutionarily and biologically that that complementation is set up with an individual of the opposite sex." Vincent Sarich, Notes, Lecture No. 16, at I (Oct. 3, 1990) (on file with author). return to text

65. See Miller, supra note 57, at 11. return to text

66. The source for The facts related in this paragraph is the unpublished report of Alan T. Kolling, the Administrative Analyst who officially investigated the disruption. See Report of Alan T. Kolling, Principal Administrative Analyst, University of California at Berkeley, to Francisco J. Hernandez, Dean of Student Life, University of California at Berkeley (Feb. 26, 1991) (on file with author) [hereinafter Kolling]. return to text

67. Kolling, supra note 66, at 3. The Kolling report amplified This statement: Interestingly, almost all of the students claimed to have some disagreement with Sarich and his teachings, and said they enjoyed challenging him in his optional study sections or during office hours. This was apparently one of the major reasons why the demonstrators won few converts in the class: the students taking the course felt that the demonstrators neither understood what Sarich said in class nor realized the extent to which they disagreed with his material. All seemed disappointed that the parties failed to engage in a debate because they were interested in knowing what the demonstrators really had to say and because they believed that Sarich was quite open to participating in such a debate. Id. at 7. return to text

68. Id. at 3. return to text

69. Id. at 5. return to text

70. The Anthropology Department at Berkeley is so divided and opposed to hierarchy that it has no chairperson. The vice-chancellor advised the Department that the Academic Senate's Committee on Courses was the appropriate body to investigate complaints against teaching, much to the surprise of the Committee on Courses, which did nothing. return to text

71. Experienced faculty members did not take seriously the Chancellor's promise to take disciplinary action against the demonstrators. It is notorious at Berkeley that threats of disciplinary action against demonstrations are so much hot air, because substantial punishment is never imposed. Students will not testify against demonstrators, and aggressive lawyers know how to stymie the overjudicialized campus disciplinary proceedings. When misdemeanor criminal charges are brought, Berkeley jurors will not convict. In some circumstances administrators might have a legal obligation to take reasonable steps to prevent disruption of classes, however. See supra note 36. return to text

72. T. Christian Miller, "Faculty Challenge Sarich", The Daily Californian, Dec. 7, 1990, at 1. return to text

73. Id. at 1. return to text

74 See supra note 58 return to text

75. Miller, supra note 72, al 1. return to text

76. Id. The official report by analyst Allan Kolling contains an interesting reference to this confrontation: Many of the students who attended the ...debate between Sarich and other anthropologists expressed anger at the way Sarich was treated by his colleagues, especially Nancy Scheper-Hughes. Some expressed admiration for Sarich's "bravery" while at least one student felt that Scheper-Hughes' behavior at the forum was as 'disruptive' as some of that exhibited by the demonstrators. This particular student expressed some apprehension about testifying against demonstrators since faculty members had behaved in an equally outrageous manner towards Sarich and would not be held accountable. It bears repeating that many of these same students stressed their disagreement with Sarich's material during my interview. Kolling, supra note 66, at 7. return to text

Copyright © 1997 Phillip E. Johnson. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.
File Date: 6.12.97