After years in the making, a new Master Plan for Public
Education in California attempts to promote access to higher
education, recommends changes in college admissions policies, and
calls for a student fee increase for university students. However,
none of these recommendations are guaranteed to happen. The master
plan is not a law and was only considered by a portion of the state
legislature. For its recommendations to take effect they must be
passed by the whole legislature and signed by the governor.
Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, chair of the assembly’s
higher education committee, believes there will be five to seven
large bills proposed to put the recommendations into effect. It is
up to state Sen. Dede Alpert, D-San Diego to decide how to
introduce legislation because she created the Committee to Develop
a new Master Plan in 1999. UC faculty, staff and regents provided
input in various working groups created during the early stages of
the plan’s formation. Alpert’s committee approved the
new master plan ““ which will provide a guide for education
policy through the year 2020 ““ in early September.
Plans, but nothing in stone The new master plan replaces the
1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which defined the role of
the University of California and stated student fees could not be
used to pay instruction costs. The new plan recommends designing a
fee policy “that would preserve access to higher education
opportunity for all of California’s students” and that
“fees would increase in a moderate and predictable fashion
when needed.” Reflective of how preliminary the
recommendations are, the plan lacks any dollar figures or
percentages for how much fees could increase. “I don’t
know how much the increase will be,” said Charles Ratliff, a
consultant to the master plan committee. “I don’t know
if it will be $2 or $2,000.” The regular fee increases would
end the current system of keeping fees the same when the economy is
good and dramatic increases when the economy suffers
““Â if it is put into place. In addition to changing what
students will pay, the master plan could also change who gets into
college. The plan recommends that the UC and California State
University stop using weighted grade point averages for admissions
purposes. Most universities give an extra grade point for honors
and advanced placement classes, so an “A” is worth five
grade points instead of four. The plan states that this places
students from lower income backgrounds at a disadvantage when
applying for college because they often have fewer honors and AP
courses available at their high school. Instead, the plan
recommends increasing the rigor of all high school courses, so they
will prepare students for college without needing honors courses.
But, in this case as well, plans are only preliminary and will have
to clear many hurdles before being implemented. UC Regent John
Davies said “absolutely no” to using unweighted GPAs
for admissions when the regents discussed the master plan during
their September meeting. Additionally, the plan recommends using
both objective and subjective criteria for admissions, similar to
the new policy of comprehensive review the regents approved last
year. Under this policy, an applicant’s academics
qualifications, personal characteristics and life challenges are
all considered in deciding which students to admit. Any change in
admissions criteria would first be considered by the Academic
Senate ““ the organization of UC faculty ““ which is
currently discussing the plan’s recommendations. Academic
Senate members first met to discuss the master plan Wednesday, said
systemwide Academic Counsel chair Gayle Binion. Binion said she
expects the chair of each campus’ Academic Senate to seek
further faculty input on how the senate will get involved in
implementing possible new laws. The UC Office of the President,
meanwhile, is currently reviewing the final plan, and will give
additional input once bills are proposed, said UC press aide Brad
Hayward.