November 12, 1999

Berkeley's Admissions Director, Plagued by Debate Over Minority Enrollment, Will Retire; Trustee of New School U. Shares Job of Interim President

By BEN GOSE and JULIANNE BASINGER

As director of admissions at the University of California at Berkeley, Robert Laird has been under assault from both the right and the left. Now he's leaving the fray.

After the 1996 passage of Proposition 209, a ballot measure that banned the consideration of race in admissions, hiring, and contracting at state institutions, enrollment of black and Hispanic students at Berkeley dropped sharply. In February of this year, three minority organizations struck back, filing a class-action