Wednesday, October 7, 1998
UC reaches out to worst high schools
REGENTS: 5-year plan, $55 million set aside to target the
disadvantaged
By Edina Lekovic
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UC Regents are banking on the ability of $55 million to
bring a larger number of "educationally disadvantaged" students to
UC campuses.
Last month, UC officials unveiled an expansive five-year plan
targeting students who attend the state’s worst high schools.
With an additional $33.5 million in state funds and $5 million
from the UC, outreach programs will receive a $38.5 million annual
increase in funding.
However, the university must raise $31 million in matching funds
in order to access the state money, which will bring spending on UC
outreach up to approximately $135 million during 1998-99.
This increase will more than double the $65 million spent last
year by the university.
"This is a major boost for programs that are a very high
priority for the Board of Regents and for this administration,"
said UC President Richard Atkinson.
"We are pleased that the governor (has given his) endorsement to
the goals and implementation strategies outlined by the Outreach
Task Force," he continued.
Guided by the Outreach Task Force, the university will intensify
its efforts to address inequities in K-12 education as a means of
better preparing students from all backgrounds for UC admission,
according to university spokesman Brad Hayward.
The board’s 1995 decision to eliminate affirmative action,
coupled with Proposition 209, resulted in the statewide repeal of
the consideration of race or gender in public education and hiring.
UCLA and UC Berkeley have witnessed the most dramatic drop of all
UC schools in underrepresented minority enrollment.
The repeal, which took effect with this fall’s incoming freshman
and transfers, has resulted in a 9.5 percent drop systemwide in the
enrollment of African Americans, Latinos and American Indians – the
three groups the UC considers underrepresented.
The decline at UCLA was much sharper, with enrollment of African
Americans dropping by 40 percent and Latinos dropping by 42
percent.
However, Regent Ward Connerly, who spearheaded the repeal of
affirmative action, was quick to point out that newly expanded
outreach programs have nothing to do with that decision.
"As we lay this groundwork for this bold and exciting future …
we remind ourselves we are doing this for those who are
disadvantaged," said Connerly. "We’re not doing this as a surrogate
for race and ethnicity."
Karl Pister, senior associate to the president, presented the
result of the outreach committee’s investigation. He said that the
overlap of students who qualify as ethnic minorities and
"educationally disadvantaged" was a coincidence.
"It just happens to be that if you focus on the educationally
disadvantaged, that (ethnic minorities) are the disadvantaged,"
said former UC Santa Cruz chancellor Pister. "We’re talking about
educationally disadvantaged students, and they happen to be African
American, Chicano and Native American."
Though UC officials maintain that the goal of these efforts is
to increase the number of "educationally disadvantaged" students,
it would appear from the statements of various officials that
re-establishing the diversity that UC schools were once known for
is also an unspoken goal.
Pister acknowledged that "eliminating race and sex (in
admissions) created a challenge" for the UC’s oft-stated commitment
to a diverse student body.
"If all students were afforded the same pre-collegiate
opportunities, it is much less likely that the term ‘educationally
disadvantaged’ would have to be utilized," Pister told the regents
during his presentation.
Pister and his fellow committee members emphasized the program’s
goals of ensuring that the eligibility pool reflects the state’s
population more accurately and more students meet UC
eligibility.
By extending cooperative relationships between UC campuses and
the state’s worst high schools, school-campus partnerships are
expected to double the number of UC-eligible students from partner
high schools within five years.
"Engagement with K-12 can only be accomplished by moving
outreach closer to the core of the mission of the UC," said
Pister.
Most of the 238 partner schools are near one of the nine UC
campuses, with the greatest density in the Los Angeles and Bay
areas. Made up of roughly 70,000 of the state’s 5.5 million
students, the schools hold predominantly minority students who fall
into the lowest-scoring SAT group.
$2.5 million of the outreach funds will be earmarked for UCLA
alone, because the majority of disadvantaged students live in the
Los Angeles area and one-fourth of all UC students come from the
Los Angeles area.
"We want to focus on resources where we can get the most payoff
for the money we spend and not spend 12 cents per child in
California," UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale told the regents.
Aimee Dorr, faculty representative to the regents, agreed that
the board’s goals must be focused in order to be effective.
"We have to have reasonable goals – lighting a candle in the
dark rather than raging against the darkness," Dorr said.
Emphasizing the scope of the problem in Los Angeles-area schools
alone, Regent John Hotchkis pointed to a recent study which says
that sixth-grade students have about a 12 percent chance of reading
at an eighth-grade level by the time they’re 18.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Hotchkis said the
university’s hands are already full.
"I want to remind us all that, as much as we have a need to work
with K-12, that is not the primary responsibility of the UC,"
Hotchkis told the board.
However, despite the added "burden" to the UC’s created by the
outreach efforts, UC Riverside Chancellor Raymond Orbach was
optimistic about the program.
"The excitement on campuses is phenomenal," he said. "I think
you’re going to see an explosion of activity on the campuses."
Student Regent Max Espinoza called on the regents to engage
themselves in outreach efforts, as Regent Ralph Ochoa pointed out
his own connection to California’s community colleges.
"I grew up in one of those areas where the opportunity for
education is the community college," Ochoa said.
"The band-aid, quick answers are not going to do it. (The
problem of diversity) is not new, but we have to understand how
drastic it is," he said.
Like her peers, Regent Meredith Khachigian supports the new
efforts and increased spending but is wary of the short-term
effects.
"I regret that there will be a lag of students who will be
caught in the transition," Khachigian said. "I’m very mindful of
that. I don’t think any of us have the answer for that."
Will the additional funding and expansive plans be enough to
re-establish diversity in the UC’s?
"Only time will tell," Pister said.
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