Also see: College Book: Campus Diversity Ratings (US News; 1998); and Losing Diversity: A Report on the Admissions Figures at Berkeley (PBS NewsHour; April 1, 1998)
NEW ADMISSIONS DATA SHOW UCLA TO ENROLL LARGEST UC FRESHMAN CLASS FOR FALL 1998
UCLA announced (May 1998) that 4,267 students admitted for fall 1998 have declared their intention to register. Next fall's class will be the largest first-year class of any University of California campus and one of the largest in UCLA history.
Extensive recruitment and outreach efforts on the part of UCLA students, faculty, administration, alumni and friends resulted in a record number of admitted students who have chosen to enroll (40 percent overall). Even among minority groups historically underrepresented in the UCLA student population, the proportion who plan to attend (44 percent) was higher than ever. This year, a total of 1,363 African-American, Chicano/Latino and American Indian students were admitted and 604 said they plan to attend UCLA in the fall.
"The good news is that we will enroll more under-represented students than we had anticipated," said UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale, "but, we remain disappointed that fewer under-represented students were admitted under the constraint of Proposition 209. We will continue to dedicate resources to outreach efforts aimed at ensuring adequate representation of all segments of the community on campus."
Among the most successful of several new outreach initiatives launched this year was the Chancellor's Blue and Gold Scholarship program, targeting high-achieving students of all races and ethnicities from Los Angeles County high schools which traditionally have sent few students to UCLA. Of the 214 students who received Blue and Gold Scholarship offers, 157 (73 percent) accepted admission to UCLA. The scholarships provide up to $5,000 annually and are renewable for up to four years. Overall, the approximate composition of the incoming class will be 15 American Indian (of 49 admitted); 131 African American (of 304 admitted); 458 Chicano/Latino (of 1,010 admitted); 1,282 white/Caucasian (of 3,352 admitted); and 1,700 Asian American (of 4,251 admitted). In addition, the class will include 558 students who declined to state their race or ethnicity (of 1,518 admitted), 69 who self-identified as "other" (of 128 admitted) and 54 international students (of 209 admitted). "Members of the UCLA community have worked very hard to recruit admitted students to UCLA," Carnesale said. "Their efforts have been effective and must be commended."
Post-affirmative action in Texas & the 10%
experiment: Under a federal court order to abolish affirmative action,
Texas universities have seen a drop in black and Latino students since
1996. Trying to boost the numbers, the Texas Legislature mandated that
the top 10% of each high school be offered automatic admission to University
of Texas or Texas A&M. Even with this new approach, the University
of Texas at Austin, the state's flagship campus, saw no improvement in
the diversity of next fall's admitted class:
White Black Latino Asian
Am. Indian
1996 6,606 438 1,600 1,487
56
1997 7,492 360 1,421 1,821
49
1998 6,835 320 1,401 1,776
49
Source: University of Texas
Admission (not actual enrollment) numbers
from UC Law Schools
UCLA and UC Davis law schools admitted fewer black and Latino students
than last year, when the ban on affirmative action first took effect. But
the number of admitted students from these minority groups grew at UC Berkeley's
Boalt Hall, prompting
questions from UC Regents, particularly from Regent Ward Connerly.
(Not all applicants who are admitted enroll.) At a Friday, June 19
interrogation of Boalt Law School's Dean, Connerly went on to question
not only the law school admissions but ethnic studies programs and graduation
ceremonies staged by black and Latino student groups: "Are ethnic
studies courses valuable and critical to the university's mission?" Connerly
asked. "Or have, in fact, these diversity courses from a feel-good time
in the 1960s outlived their usefulness. . . . It is time we reexamine all
of this."
UC BERKELEY
1997 1998 % Change
American Indian 2
4 +100%
African American 18 32
+77%
Latino
46 60 +30%
Asian American 149 143
-4%
White/Other
645 618 -4%
Total
860 857 -0%
* * *
UCLA
1997 1998 % Change
American Indian 5
7 +40%
African American 21 17
-19%
Latino
74 45 -39%
Asian American 200 167
-16%
White/Other
707 596 -16%
Total
1,007 832 -17%
* * *
UC DAVIS
1997 1998 % Change
American Indian 7
7 0%
African American 20 17
-15%
Latino
50 50 0%
Asian American 128 179
+40%
White/Other 600
540 -10%
Total
805 793 -1%
Source: University of California
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Carl
Gutierrez-Jones
Department of English
University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106
E-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu