As Thanksgiving and the end of November draw near, high school
students across the country are scrambling to turn in their
University of California applications. But the application process
““ and the basic UC eligibility requirements ““ remain at
the center of a great debate.
The UC regents voted this September to tighten UC eligibility
requirements so fewer California high school students qualify for
guaranteed admission to the UC system.
The minimum GPA requirement was raised from 2.8 to 3.0, and the
A-G subject requirements were tweaked to make high school students
take a tougher load. Together, these changes are expected to cut
the guaranteed eligible pool from 14.4 percent to 12.5 percent.
While these new rules will not affect this year’s
applicants, many people believe they will eventually reduce the
diversity found on UC campuses.
California must look at higher education as an investment in the
future of the state and its people. Tweaking the eligibility
requirements might be fiscally sound in the short run, but
California’s leaders and voters should want more UC
graduates, not fewer.
Fixing the education system won’t happen quickly, and hard
decisions will have to be made about the K-12 curriculum,
Proposition 13 and other contentious issues. But one thing is
clear: Making the UC more exclusive will not solve anything.