Without the new scholarships black students will receive if they choose to attend UCLA, Robin Egbuniwe’s decision of which university to attend next fall would have been easy ““ Pitzer College had offered her a good amount of financial help, and UCLA had not.
“If I can’t pay for college, I can’t go,” she said.
The Black Alumni Association, which is made up of UCLA graduates but is not affiliated with the university, raised $1.75 million for scholarships for incoming students to be used over the next four years in an effort to increase the black population on campus.
“Financial aid offers in other schools were greater than UCLA offered,” said Los Angeles businessman Peter Taylor, who heads the fundraising group. “We wanted to equalize our financial aid offers so when students were to make that important decision it wasn’t on “˜who’s giving me more money.'”
The California Community Foundation, a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization, will administer the scholarship fund.
The group plans to offer at least $1,000 to each black student who enrolls, and additional money will be awarded based on academic merit and financial need.
Egbuniwe said she is leaning toward selecting UCLA primarily because of the financial help, but also because both her older sisters currently attend the university, and her boss and her mother want her to attend UCLA.
“Because they’re offering me the scholarship, UCLA is looking very, very appetizing right now,” she said.
She said she will not make her final decision until after she has had an interview with Pitzer.
Egbuniwe said she believes the scholarship will help in increasing the number of admitted black students who choose to attend UCLA, also called the yield.
This is one of the goals of administering the scholarship, said Ana-Christina Ramon, research coordinator at the Bunche Center, which does research on admissions issues in the UC system.
Last year, the yield of black students was about 40 percent.
“I think that will be another incentive for them to come to UCLA, and it will make UCLA more attractive, especially because for a lot of those students financial need is high,” she said.
Ramon stressed the importance of having a more diverse population at UCLA.
“It’s an issue because UCLA is a public institution,” Ramon said. “Even though it can be considered an elite institution, it is an institution that serves California and the population of California.”
Some UCLA students, such as first-year biology student James Aboagye, say they would feel more comfortable with a greater black population at the university.
“Black students feel there’s not much of a community here,” Aboagye said.
Ramon said this also poses a problem of how others view UCLA.
Ramon said she believes the small number of black students at UCLA makes it appear as though the university is not welcoming of diversity.
Though it is uncertain how much the scholarships will actually increase the black population at UCLA, Taylor said the outlook is good.
The Black Alumni Association started calling admitted students on Monday night and are generally receiving a positive response, Taylor said.
Aboagye said he believes the scholarship will give students more of an inclination to come to UCLA.
“Them giving money is them saying … “˜We want you here more than another school,'” Aboagye said.
Namju Cho, director of communications for the California Community Foundation, said she was pleased that the Black Alumni Association was able to rally support among the community and raise money for the scholarships.
“It’s an incredible grassroots effort to really come together to respond to a community need that was so dire at that time,” Cho said. “It can increase the diversity of the student body.”