Monday, April 6, 1998
Future of diversity questionable in Prop. 209 era
ANALYSIS: No quick fix available for problem
of minority admissions
By Hannah Miller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With the release of admission figures last week, UCLA risks
losing one of its major selling points – its reputation for being
one of the most diverse schools in the nation. It now looks to keep
its population diverse with post-affirmative-action techniques, but
finds itself at the mercy of outside forces.
Since the UC Regents voted to do away with race as a
consideration in admissions in 1995, the onus for providing a
diverse group of applicants has fallen on California’s public
schools, from which the UCs draw 80.1 percent of their students. At
the same time, the K-12 schools have come increasingly under fire
for inadequately preparing its pupils for college, let alone
meeting UC standards. In a recent study, 47 percent of CSU students
were unable to demonstrate proficiency in English.
In response, the state has examined ways to make more of its
minority students eligible to meet UC requirements indirectly, by
raising academic requirements throughout its schools.
The Board of Education has enacted stricter graduation standards
in English and mathematics, and plans to do the same for science
and social science. But these will take at least 10 years to
implement in California high schools, according to Bill Vasey of
the state Department of Education.
"These admissions numbers reemphasize what an awesome task we
have," Vasey said. "Not only do more minority students have to be
encouraged by counselors to realize that college is a possibility,
but "we have to make sure kids enroll in the right classes and that
they get enough support. There is no quick fix here."
This change is largely out of UCLA’s hands. It has to happen on
a grand scale. California has 851 high schools, with a combined
student body of 1.2 million.
The university’s primary response to lagging diversity thus far
has been to tout outreach, but there may be limitations on what
that can accomplish. The UC Regents board pledged $60 million last
summer to outreach efforts, both for programs that have been in
place since the 1960s, and for the development of new ones. But
they are operating in an information vacuum: very little is known
about what works in outreach and what doesn’t.
In the meantime, the university plans some short-term
solutions.
The university hopes to keep some of the rejected applicants
within the system by rerouting 2,000 applicants back to less
competitive campuses that will accept them. The university says it
will concentrate this effort on underrepresented minorities,
although admissions numbers at UCLA will remain unaffected.
What also remains to be seen is how many of those admitted will
say yes to the UCs. The universities plan to bombard all admitted
students with mail urging them to accept. UC Berkeley Chancellor
Robert Berdahl has even promised to personally call all 652
minority students admitted to Berkeley.
There is also a small chance that affirmative action is not
legally dead in California. Last year, the Supreme Court refused to
hear lawsuits against Proposition 209, but there is still a
possibility that the court could choose to try the law, especially
since several other states are already seeing legal or electoral
attacks on affirmative action. If the Supreme Court chooses to
uphold affirmative action over the states’ antipathy, it could
return to state-funded institutions. Regent Frank Clark, a lawyer
in private practice, guesses that the court will eventually have to
consider affirmative action, either in the case of Proposition 209
or the Hopwood case in Texas.
And there seems to be no chance of the regents reconsidering
their decision, even in the light of the recent admissions results.
"This won’t come before the board. No one has even suggested that
we review SP1 and SP2," Clark said.