New Master Plan may limit enrollment

California’s new Master Plan for Education may cut down on
the number of students admitted to the University of California,
allege activists at UC Berkeley.

The original Master Plan for Higher Education, written in 1960,
guarantees admission to at least one UC campus for every student in
the top 12.5 percent of the state’s high school seniors.

But the new plan could have loopholes that would negate the
guarantee, said Yvette Felarca, a founding member of the Coalition
to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary.

“This was done to leave open the opportunity to restrict
the number of students who could be admitted,” said Felarca,
currently a student in UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of
Education.

However, the university is committed to guaranteeing admission
to every student in the top 12.5 percent, said UC press aide Hanan
Eisenman.

“The University of California has fought very hard to have
that guarantee,” Eisenman said. “That’s how we serve
the very students we’re mandated to serve.”

The current plan states the UC “should continue to adhere
to the policy of guaranteeing that all students who apply for
freshman admission and are eligible to attend (students
within…the top one-eighth, in the case of UC applicants) are
offered admission.”

Felarca said this is open to many interpretations. The use of
words such as “within” allows the UC to admit only a
portion of those who are in the top eighth of graduating seniors,
she said.

Staff for the state legislative committee which wrote the plan
and the UC Office of the President said there was no change to the
guarantee of admission.

“We’re not trying to overrule the higher education
plan,” said Christina Galves, a consultant for the master
plan committee. “I honestly do not know where they are coming
from.”

The new Master Plan, released in September, is intended to be a
guide for how education in California should be organized and
delivered, but it is not a law and its recommendations are not
binding.

“We just have to hope it is followed,” Galves
said.

The plan had been in development since 1999, when state senator
Dede Alpert, D-San Diego, created the Committee to Develop a New
Master Plan.

Eisenman said preliminary versions did not include the admission
guarantee, but the university pushed for its inclusion.

Felarca wants members of the UC Regents and UC President Richard
Atkinson to publicly declare their support for the 12.5 percent
plan at their meeting in San Francisco today.

This is needed to offset students’ loss of access to the
UC starting with the repeal of affirmative action in 1995, she
said.

“The attack on the guarantee is an extension of racist
attacks on affirmative action,” Felarca said.

The debate over UC admissions policy comes at a time when the
university is facing enrollment growth and budget shortfalls.

These circumstances caused UCLA administrators to consider
limiting enrollment, an option they decided against because of
expected public disapproval.

But Felarca said this is an issue of legislators making
priorities, not one of a state lacking funds to keep the doors
open.

The state’s budget problem is only being used to justify
existing conservative attacks against education, Felarca said.

Change could be made by the regents at any time; the Master Plan
does not have the force of law. Galves said the committee has to
hope the UC will follow the recommendations.

The university does not appear likely to make a change in the
near future.

“The UC plans on continuing to guarantee admission to top
12.5 percent of high school seniors,” Eisenman said.

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