EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in
Chief  Timothy Kudo
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 Michael Falcone
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 Cuauhtemoc Ortega
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Kelly Rayburn
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Preliminary data is in for the Fall 2002 undergraduate
applications to the UC, and advocates of diversifying the ethnic
make-up of the university’s student body so that it is more
reflective of the state’s population have reasons to be both
pleased and concerned. While the number of minority applicants did
increase overall, their rate of increase has actually decreased
marginally from last year in all groups but whites and Latinos.
The increase in applications and decrease in rate could indicate
a leveling off of the minority application growth rate. If this is
the case, it appears California will not see a solution to racial
underrepresentation in higher education anytime in the near future.
However, the increase is encouraging because it means the
university will have a larger pool of minority applicants from
which to choose. Coupled with the new comprehensive review policy,
this should result in the increased number of minorities enrolled
in the UC. Increases at UCLA look particularly promising: for
example, the number of African Americans increased by 20.4 percent
over the last two years at UCLA.
The debate over minority underrepresentation at UCLA and UC
Berkeley peaked last year when students protested former UC
Regents’ SP-1 and SP-2 policies, which banned the use of
affirmative action at the UC. Supporters of the repeal of SP-1 and
2 argued their removal would send a welcome message to minorities,
encouraging them to apply in greater numbers. But in light of the
new data, this logic seems to have fallen short ““ minority
applicants have decreased in their overall rate of application.
But despite the decrease in the applications’ annual rate,
the university (and especially UCLA) still has more than enough
qualified minority applicants to select from and increase UC
diversity. If advances can be made in K-12 education ““
coupled with including the “life challenges” component
of the admissions process which takes into account socioeconomic
hardship ““ we can start moving toward social equality.