If Gov. Gray Davis will prove anything to voters in his second
term, it’s that no helpful academic program is exempt from a
good thrashing.
California’s 2002-2003 budget contains $74 million in
mid-year cuts, ranging from $3.3 million cuts in outreach programs
to $18 million in research, and $6.3 million for student services.
And while $92,000 may be chump change when compared with those
numbers, the $92,000 cut in the Academic Advancement Program is one
of Davis’ most tragic casualties.
The AAP was founded in 1970 with the aim “to make sure
disadvantaged students had the opportunity to flourish at
UCLA,” according to AAP Director Adolfo Bermeo. And through
peer counseling, tutoring and computer services, the AAP has
fulfilled its mission. Starting with less than 700 students, the
AAP has burgeoned to 5,700 registered members and countless more
who use the services informally. In 2001, 76 percent of AAP
students graduated, giving it the highest retention rate of any
other retention program in the country.
AAP’s scope extends beyond helping students get higher
grades and test scores in individual classes. It partners students
with graduate students and exposes them to faculty who provide
useful advice and mentoring on graduate and professional school
““ it even has a internship program that allows students to
tutor in local communities. AAP also pioneered a Freshman Summer
Program to prepare incoming freshman for the rigors of a
competitive academic environment which they may not have
experienced in high school.
But to fully appreciate AAP’s value, its services must be
considered in the context of a sprawling public university like
UCLA. With impersonally large lectures that sometimes exceed 300
students, a lack of discussion sections and office hours to match
student needs, and a bevy of professors hired for their research
prowess instead of teaching ability, programs like AAP are almost
as vital as classes and professors themselves.
AAP helps students bridge the gap between knowledge and
understanding. With tutors or peer counselors, students can ask the
questions they can’t ask in class and keep asking questions
until they get the answer. After racing to write down everything
they hear in lecture, AAP gives students a chance to go through the
material and fill in the gaps of their knowledge.
Because programs like AAP are so vital to student learning, Gov.
Davis should have targeted another area that would not have been as
severely burdened by the loss. The cut requires AAP to reduce peer
counseling, tutoring, and the availability of computer lab
operating hours by 25 percent. AAP has sustained similar cuts and
survived in the past, but this loss is too great for AAP to avoid
cutting valuable services.
Davis has already committed himself to preserving the UC’s
instructional budget with an unpopular mid-year student fee hike.
But with these cuts to AAP, he will negate his own goal. The
quality of teaching in UCs may be minimally diminished according to
Davis, but students will have more difficulty synthesizing the
material without peer counselors and tutors at their disposal.