By Cameron Zargar
For The Daily Bruin
Jean Carn, a fourth-year UCLA student, will continue her
academic journey ““ which began in a Georgia community college
““ when she attends USC law school this fall.
Carn said her success resulted from the guidance and
encouragement provided by the Academic Advancement Program at
UCLA.
“AAP helped me know what was to be expected of me,”
Carn said. “UCLA is a large and overwhelming school. AAP
helped ease the pressure by showing us around campus.”
AAP assists low-income households, first generation college
students and students facing other significant social and
educational barriers.
The services provided include counseling, tutoring, academic
guidance and encouragement for students as they make the transition
to university life from a community college or high school.
When Carn encountered difficulty transferring from the community
college atmosphere, AAP assisted her personally and helped her
devise a solution.
“When my credits from Georgia State University would not
transfer over here, AAP helped me file petitions to credit my units
here,” she said.
Carn added that her counselors and tutors would even provide
their home phone number.
“It’s a lot more personal,” she said.
“It’s a friendly environment, one in which you are not
afraid to ask questions.”
Masai Minters, director of counseling, mentoring and TRIO in
AAP, said currently between five and six thousand students use
services provided by AAP.
TRIO is a national organization providing educational
opportunities for low-income and disabled students.
Although there is a list of other programs providing similar
services at UCLA, Minters said he believed AAP has seen the most
success.
“AAP is the largest and most successful retention program
in the United States,” Minters said. “But that comes in
part from working with the other programs at UCLA and from
collaboration with similar programs around the nation.”
In addition to tutorial programs, peer counseling, graduate
mentor programs and services for transfer students, AAP has created
specialized programming for students seeking jobs in social
development.
The Teachers for Tomorrow program assists students interested in
becoming teachers for kindergarten through high school while the
Rosa Parks Center helps students pursuing degrees in social
justice, law, medicine, public health and social welfare.
This extra aid provided by AAP, however, is not available for
everyone at UCLA, said Donald Wasson, AAP associate director
Wasson said the admissions office determines eligibility for
AAP.
“The admissions office looks at what schools the students
attended and if they have faced significant barriers,” Wasson
said. “Then students not in AAP can apply, and if they have
substantial barriers, they can receive tutoring.”
Minters emphasized that AAP is not a form of affirmative
action.
Although AAP was intended to serve students of minority
ethnicities at first, the program can no longer use race or
ethnicity as criteria to accept students with the passage of the UC
Regents’ SP-1 and with Proposition 209, which ended
affirmative action in the University of California and in
California, respectively.
“AAP was founded in the early ’70s,” Minters
said. “It was initially developed to provide academic,
social, and personal support for historically underrepresented
students on a traditionally hostile campus.”
These “underrepresented” students included first
generation and low income college students, according to
Minters.
“There is no proxy for race,” Minters said.
“AAP existed before and after the end of affirmative
action.”
Even today, a majority of the students in AAP are minorities,
Wasson said.
“It is no longer the case that every underrepresented
student meets the criteria for AAP, whereas before, that was the
case,” Wasson said. “We’re still largely a
service that serves minority students and students of
underrepresented ethnicities make up the majority of our
program.”
AAP is not the only specialized counseling service at UCLA. It
works in collaboration with a number of other campus groups to
provide students with the necessary tools to succeed in college,
Wasson said.
Among such programs at UCLA are the Program Leading to
Undergraduate Success, a department of education TRIO program, the
Center of Academic Research Excellence, which assists students in
science research, and the Center for Excellence in Engineering
Diversity, which helps students in the field of engineering.
According to Minters, AAP works with these groups to encourage
their students to get involved.
“Being in one program does not mean excluding yourself
from others,” Minters said. “We strongly encourage AAP
students to participate in all programs that enrich their academic,
personal, and leadership experience, as well as their social
consciousness while here at UCLA.”
Though only a specific minority of students are granted access
to AAP, many of those eligible never take advantage of the
services.
Arlene Pesigan, a counselor for the College of Letters and
Sciences, said AAP students often come to L&S looking for help
never realizing they should go to AAP counseling.
“We emphasize taking advantage of AAP because we’re
really booked,” Pesigan said. “L&S counselors refer
AAP students to take advantage of AAP, get to know the counselors
there.
“Their programs are really geared toward their academic
needs,” Pesigan continued. “It’s a more intimate
and supportive environment.”
L&S Counselors also refer AAP students to utilize the
services provided for them because they do not have AAP student
files, Pesigan said.
“We refer our AAP students to AAP because, pragmatically,
we don’t even have their files,” Pesigan said.
“We want to minimize inconsistency as far as administrative
paper work or follow-up.”
Pesigan encouraged students to take advantage of AAP counseling
so that L&S counselors can have more time to help students who
are not in other academic advising programs.
“The students who are eligible for AAP take up slots that
should be available for L&S students who are not eligible for
AAP, honors or athletic programs,” Pesigan said. “This
takes away from our attention to L&S students.”
Some students who are eligible for AAP still choose L&S
counseling because of time constraints.
“In terms of time, L&S has a lot more availability
slots,” Pesigan said. “While in L&S they can see
counselors the same day, AAP is booked in advance.”
Although many students may feel anonymous due to the
institutionality of a major university, Carn said AAP was a
comforting atmosphere within UCLA.
“It’s hard to know what the ongoings are at such a
large campus,” she said. “AAP helps navigate the rest
of the campus ““ and it’s comforting to know where
you’re going.”