By Noah Grand
Daily Bruin Reporter
Starting in December, up to 60 UCLA admissions officers are
expected to comprehensively review about 42,000 applications
““ but the funding may not be there.
The state budget provides $750,000 “to support campus
efforts to move toward comprehensive assessment of freshmen
applications,” but UC spokesman Brad Hayward said he does not
know if this is enough to fund the program.
The state, which expects a 15-percent budget cut because of
economic uncertainty after the Sept. 11 attacks, has also asked the
board of regents to reduce its budget for the year.
“I don’t know if there will be a dollar figure to
give to the regents at the November regents meeting,” Hayward
said.
The proposed policy calls for admissions officers to evaluate
all freshman applicants for fall 2002 in terms of life challenges
and academic and personal achievements, with no given ratio for any
category.
If the systemwide Academic Senate approves it at its Oct. 31
meeting, the regents will vote on it in November.
In the past, between 50 and 75 percent of admissions decisions
at each school were based strictly on academic criteria under the
two-tier system. This system was instituted by SP-1, a policy the
regents passed in 1995 ““ and rescinded last May ““ that
ended affirmative action in admissions.
In July, the regents approved the dual admissions proposal,
which would grant provisional UC admission to students who graduate
in the top 4 to 12.5 percent of their high school class.
This program was put on hold last month after funding was cut
from the state budget.
With a tighter budget, some regents are questioning the
feasibility of funding yet another admissions proposal.
“You’re telling me that the legislature allocated
money for comprehensive admissions but not for dual admissions, yet
we already voted in July for dual admissions? I’m asking
myself “˜where’s the legislature coming from?’ Why
didn’t they put some money toward dual admissions, which we
know has a good return,” said regent Velma Montoya.
Funding for reviewing admissions has not been a problem in the
past, Hayward said, because the $40 fee applicants pay for each UC
they apply to is enough to fund the review process.
But now, the UC faces the difficulty of finding money to fund
the new admissions programs ““ and they must find enough
people to read the applications in time.
Tom Lifka, interim director of admissions, said UCLA is looking
to hire 20 to 25 part-time workers to read applications, a move
that will cost at least $100,000.
Admissions officers do not begin reading applications until
mid-December and must make all decisions by early March.
Rosa Pimentel, an admissions office staff member who has been
reading applications for 19 years, said she can read 200
applications a day when rating students based on test scores and
GPA, but can only read 100 under a comprehensive review.
She said newer staff members will only be able to read 40 or 50
applications a day.
“Some people may have to go beyond an eight-hour day to
get their reading done,” Pimentel said. “Many of the
staff will read over the weekend if their week has been very busy
with other activities.”
According to Lifka, each admissions officer will need to read at
least 500 applications, and some staff members will need to read
1,000.