Friday, 5/23/97 New plans support diversity in policies
ADMISSIONS: Top students from all California high schools would
enter UCs
By J. Sharon Yee Daily Bruin Contributor In light of the recent
death of affirmative action in the University of California’s
admissions policies, a new set of plans and proposals encouraging
fairness and diversity within admissions policies has surfaced.
Plans have been discussed both in the California Legislature and in
the university itself, on alternate measures to promote diversity.
One plan, proposed by Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, aims to directly address
the loss of diversity among university students by revamping high
schools’ admissions criteria. "Students will have to compete in a
diverse world and we, as California taxpayers, would be providing a
great disservice to them by not offering a diverse environment at
the university," Davis said. His plan primarily calls for the
guaranteed admittance of the top two graduates of every high school
in California to a UC school. "It may not generate ethnic and
racial diversity like affirmative action did, but it would
definitely bring in diversity of experience," he said. A student
who attended Belmont High School in downtown Los Angeles, Davis
suggested, does not have the same experiences as one who attended
Beverly Hills High School. Each year, approximately 5 percent of
California’s 844 high schools do not send any students to UC
schools. Davis, who opposed Proposition 209, explained that setting
aside 1,600 spots to students who may not normally gain admission
would help eliminate this phenomenon. While this proposal clearly
benefits the two individuals who gain admittance, Davis said he
also believes schools and communities benefit as well. "The real
benefit is not to the two or three students who are accepted, but
really is the enhanced enthusiasm and attitudes of schools who
haven’t historically sent kids to UCs," he said. If implemented,
the plans would also indirectly "force high schools to become
‘UC-ready’," as parents of students at schools that do not
currently offer UC-preparation courses may begin pressuring them to
provide such classes, Davis concluded. Though the ideas are still
in the planning stages and are being heavily researched, Davis said
he is optimistic that his approach, or something similar, will
eventually be adopted. UC President Richard Atkinson and Regent
Ward Connerly have both expressed interest in the proposals.
Slightly different from Davis’ proposals is one that mandates that
the top 6 percent of California high school graduates be admitted
into the University of California system. Drafted by UCLA sociology
Professor Rodolfo Alvarez and colleague Richard Flacks, a professor
of sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the
proposal begins with a reexamination of the 1960 California Master
Plan for Higher Education. "The Master Plan calls for the admission
of the top 12.5 percent of public high school graduates," Alvarez
said. "In reality, the universities are not admitting 12.5 percent
of graduates, but rather applicants," he said. "The population of
applicants is substantially different from the population of
graduates," he added. Although Alvarez originally began thinking
about the disparity among admissions about five years ago, he
claims that people did not start seriously listening until
Proposition 209 and SP1 (the regents’ order eliminating affirmative
action) surfaced. "Before, people used to ask ‘Why mess around with
a system that is working fine?’" he said. "Now my proposal looks
reasonable and acceptable." In their report, Alvarez and Flacks
suggest that there be two rounds of admissions, the first round
guaranteeing admission to the top 6 percent of students from each
public high school who complete the A-F requirements (subjects that
must be taken before admission into the UC system), and the second
one admitting regular applicants. "We need to find effective ways
to encourage greater inclusion and to find some way to offset the
disastrous consequences of ending affirmative action in
admissions," Flacks explained. "Our proposal aims at increasing
access for students who do well in disadvantaged school
situations." Perhaps one of the biggest advantages to this plan is
the fact that students are given the opportunity to compete with
peers who share the same environment and circumstances as them. "A
person from South Central L.A. who has been able to rise above 94
percent of their peers is equally special as someone from Beverly
Hills who has done the same," Alvarez said. "To me, that is the
most significant test of all and much more significant than any
multiple-choice test. "That is where the future leadership of
California comes from and exactly the kind of person we should have
at UC schools," he concluded. Alvarez continued to explain that one
of the best predictors of a student’s academic success is the
socioeconomic status of their parents. If parents are able to
maintain a certain economic level, the student is going to have all
the advantages that are going to allow for success in school, such
as clothes to wear and computers to use. But if students have to
deal with not knowing where their next meal is coming from and
paying rent, Alvarez explained, these circumstances often hinder
their ability to compete with their distant peers, reflecting in
admissions rates. Given the ability to compete in their own local
environment brings "tremendous excitement to high schools where
everyone knows that some kids are going to be guaranteed admittance
to the UCs," he said. As a motivator and tangible incentive for
students to try harder, the proposal becomes a source of optimism
and encouragement for the entire community, Alvarez suggested.
Because there are many schools that do not offer A-F requirements,
political, economic and parental pressure to get schools to do so
would also increase greatly, Alvarez said, as these schools would
begin to be ‘shown-up’ by their local schools. Flacks said he
believes that the proposal "has a real chance of enactment," and
attributed this to the fact that it may be more effective than
university outreach programs to disadvantaged students. Alvarez
insisted that his proposal would not take slots away from students,
but he emphasized that it simply extends opportunities to those who
manage to succeed despite unfortunate circumstances. Perhaps the
biggest beneficiaries of the proposal are not inner-city students
from the ghettos, as some would assume, but rather white students
from public high schools in rural areas who have been neglected and
ignored in the past, he added. "The issue is not about blacks or
Chicanos, but rather reflects upon wherever the population is,"
Alvarez concluded, "It’s about the people of California as a
whole." Related Links: University Admissions PolicyAbout
Affirmative Action and Admissions at the University of
California