Senate Constitutional Amendment 5

SCA 5 was passed in the California Senate on January 30, 2014 [2] but was subsequently withdrawn by Hernandez due to strong opposition, mainly from Asian Americans.

[4] SCA 5 essentially does the following two things: The lead author of the bill, Senator Hernandez, argued that due to Proposition 209, "there has been a precipitous drop in the percentage of Latino, African American, and Native American students at California public universities, despite the fact that those same groups have seen steady increases in their percentages of college-eligible high school graduates.

"[5] The same arguments for support were summarized as follows in the bill analysis:[6] "According to the author's office, immediately following the November 1996 passage of Proposition 209, there was a significant drop in the percentage of enrolled minority students at both the UC and the CSU.

On February 24, 2014, Gene D. Block, Chancellor of UCLA, sent an open letter to all students and faculties expressing his strong opposition to Proposition 209.

In a joint statement with Hernandez, Pérez announced the creation of a bicameral commission on issues surrounding recruitment, admissions, and retention in California's systems of higher education.

Republicans spoke at a forum called "Stop SCA 5," which was sponsored by the Chinese-American Institute for Empowerment, which is based in San Francisco.