A closer look: A Diversity Downturn

As student fees continue to rise and funding for outreach
rapidly diminishes, the number of black students at the University
of California is dwindling.

A study released Tuesday by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for
African American Studies at UCLA found that enrollment of black
students in the UC has decreased steadily since Proposition 209 was
implemented in admitting the freshman class of 1998.

UC admissions data for 2004 indicates that this trend is
continuing, especially at the most selective campuses.

The study ““ compiled by the College Access Project
for African-Americans and called Separate but Certainly not Equal
““ attributed the decline in college admissions for black
students to racial inequality in public high schools in conjunction
with a decline in outreach programs, the result of a budget
crisis.

The study states that “racial segregation in neighborhoods
is rising, rather than decreasing,” and found that schools
with majorities of black students send many fewer students to
UCs.

Of 234 public high schools in California, the study found nine
with Asian and Pacific American majorities, 10 with black
majorities, 34 with white majorities and 95 with Latino
majorities.

Black-majority schools were almost always in urban areas,
offered the fewest AP courses, had the fewest number of
credentialed teachers (78.6 percent), and had less experienced
teachers.

The study also found that at black-majority schools, fewer
students took the SAT ““ 104.7 per school as opposed to the
high school average of 138.1 ““ the average SAT score was 200
points lower than the California average, and the passing rate for
AP tests was 18.1 percent as opposed to the state average of 52.2
percent.

These lower success rates applied to all of the students at
black-majority schools. For example, the study found white and
Asian students were much less likely to be admitted to a
competitive college when they attended a black majority school.

These inequalities in high school education may account for the
decline in black enrollment at the UC, which, exacerbated by the
6.7 percent cut in freshman admissions, shows prominently in 2004
admissions data.

In comparing the 2004 incoming freshman to the current freshman
class, 7 percent fewer black students applied to the UC and 15
percent fewer were admitted, with the decline in black admits
especially prominent at the most competitive UCs.

UCLA admitted 199 black students ““ over 25 percent fewer
than in 2003 ““ and Berkeley admitted 194, a 31 percent
drop.

UC officials say cuts in outreach and increased student fees may
have contributed to the decline in black admits.

“Some of the campuses where you see the sharpest declines
are where comprehensive review has been applied in a more narrow
way, with more weight given to SAT scores,” said Darnell
Hunt, director of the Ralph Bunche Center and a UCLA sociology
professor.

“This is a problem,” Hunt added, alluding to the
inequalities in secondary education and SAT preparation, which the
study says has disadvantaged the black community.

“We had a pretty strong application pool, and there
weren’t that many minority applicants in that part of the
pool … so basically they got squeezed out,” said Pamela
Burnett, director of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at UC
Berkeley, adding that outreach can affect application rates as well
as student preparation.

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