Daniel Lowenstein, who has won numerous faculty awards from medical students, teaches his children well, too.

After accepting one of the UCSF Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Tuesday, he called his three young children to the front of Cole Hall. Most parents tell their kids not to stare at strangers, but Lowenstein asked his to take a long careful look at those in the auditorium. “Look how different they appear on the outside. And yet all of the people here work together with a great deal of respect and pride, and in peace, to help make the world a better place by taking care of people who are sick,” he said. “I don't want you to forget what you see.”

MLK Award winners Kyra Bobinet, Stella Hsu, Jennifer Danek and Daniel Lowenstein.

The jury may still be out on whether King’s dream has become a reality, but Tuesday’s campus gathering of people from many walks of life offered some evidence that the last 30 years have been much more than a catnap.

The annual awards ceremony, which honors selected campus members for promoting diversity and carrying out the ideals inspired by the late civil rights leader, not only acknowledged extraordinary individual efforts, it celebrated the campus’ diversity and teamwork in achieving gains against some of today’s increasing long odds. And it was also a reminder and call to step up efforts.

Stella Hsu, director of campus auxiliary services and one of the four King Award recipients, was recognized by Chancellor Haile Debas as a driving force while co-chairing the Chancellor’s Steering Committee on Diversity for two years. That committee has paved the way for future actions toward increasing diversity. (See previous Daybreak story.)

Chancellor Debas joins other campus members at Tuesday’s celebration.

Hsu, however, preferred to credit the as many as 100 people whose input may eventually reap future campus rewards and the committee -- made up of campus members with varying backgrounds and viewpoints -- which “exemplified diversity at its best.”

Fourth-year medical students Kyra Bobinet and Jennifer Danek were recognized for helping incarcerated and at-risk youth in San Francisco and organizing a UCSF program at the city’s youth guidance center. They dedicated their award to the many others who work with youth and the young men in jails and the streets who, too, have great dreams despite their great struggles. Bobinet compared their at-first-hesitant involvement to a motorist passing an accident, and having to decide to keep on going -- assuming someone else is taking care of it -- or to stop and lend a hand. She said they initially struggled with fears of time commitment and other consequences of becoming too involved, but quickly overcame reluctance. Their work has been so rewarding, she urged others to say “count me in” when a helping opportunity arises.

At the ceremony Tuesday, the UCSF Council of Minority Organizations (COMO) honored Chancellor Debas with its annual award to a campus executive who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in promoting diversity and advancing social and economic justice at UCSF. “He has faithfully walked the walk and not just talked the talk,” said Ira Wilson-Butler, chair of the campus Black Caucus who presented the award on behalf of COMO. Past winners of the MLK Award were also recognized. (See list)

The spirit of the day was perhaps summed up by Lowenstein, who was co-chair with Hsu of the Chancellor’s Steering Committee on Diversity and has been an outspoken and passionate advocate for affirmative action.

“These are confusing times, and I have read about, and heard, many people question the place that affirmative action now has in our society. Our governor, the regents, and some portion of the voting public have ended affirmative action policies at various levels. And the president of our nation has suggested that we mend, not end affirmative action,” said Lowenstein. “I think that rather than end it, we should extend it. By extend, I mean that we, as a community, should live even more the true meaning of affirmative action, and show others, by example, how it is done.

“Affirmative action is not quotas, or the unfair displacement of people, or the compromise of excellence. Affirmative action is really the attitudes and behaviors that come from a state of mind. It is a consciousness that is aware of the fact that all of us are part of a long march that is taking us away from an era of human existence dominated by intolerance and prejudice and racism, and toward an era of understanding, and acceptance, and true freedom,” he said.

After citing historical examples of racism, he said, “the state of mind” sees reason for hope, because there has been real progress on many fronts. “But it recognizes that we do not need to look too far back in time or far from home to see how the roots of racism remain entwined in the fabric of our society.” said Lowenstein, referring to recent incidents, such as a move this week by a conservative lawyer's group to end a long-standing fund that provides legal fees for poor and underprivileged people. “And right here at UCSF -- the questioning of two black medical students walking to their car in the parking garage because they looked suspicious, or the neo-Nazi propaganda left accidentally in a photocopy machine a few months ago.”

But the state of mind has a very clear vision of where the march will take us -- a time when prejudice will become a permanently distant part of our history, he said.

“So when I say that we should extend, not end, affirmative action, I say that, as a community, we should make this march even more a part of our everyday lives here at UCSF,” he urged. “Whether it is advocacy and decisions favoring diversity in our promotions and hiring and admissions, respect for our colleagues in the office or laboratory or the clinic, and even kindness in the elevators and hallways; these are some of the many actions we can take to affirm that we are all on a march to true freedom.”

By Andy Evangelista

1st appeared 1/22/98

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