Submission: Lack of diversity warrants attention of Academic Senate committee

The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.

By the UCLA Academic Senate’s Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools

In recent years, students, faculty and staff at UCLA have participated in difficult discussions regarding race and campus climate. Just last quarter, the distribution of “The Black Bruins” spoken-word video, a sit-in protest by students from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and the release of a report headed by former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno have each pushed us to consider how issues of racial climate impact life and learning at our university.

Of course, the issues at hand are not unique to UCLA – similar issues confront college and university campuses across the country – but, as the faculty committee responsible for guiding undergraduate admissions, the Academic Senate’s Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools acknowledges that the issues raised regarding race, admissions and campus climate warrant our attention.

The CUARS membership is committed to building a university community that respects and embraces diversity in all of its forms. All UCLA students must feel welcomed, valued and comfortable. When we recently learned about the “Black Bruins” video, the members of CUARS watched it together and were very concerned that black male students expressed strong feelings of isolation, alienation and disrespect. As they expressed, the lack of a critical mass of black male students attending UCLA makes them feel unwelcome and uncomfortable.

The low enrollment of black males at universities is a national and systemic problem. Like elsewhere, the number of black male students attending UCLA is shockingly small. In fall 2013, a total of 397 black male students were undergraduates at UCLA. Eighty-one of these students were admitted as athletes (20.4 percent). UCLA has a strong tradition of admitting and graduating black male students who go on to change the world. From Ralph Bunche to Arthur Ashe to our current students whose spoken-word protest is being discussed around the world, our black male students have proven to be innovators whose achievements we are proud to promote. We must build upon our assets to insure that this tradition does not fade.

CUARS is responsible for establishing undergraduate admissions policies and procedures. As a committee, we are committed to focusing our efforts to enhance outreach to black communities to increase the number of students who apply for admissions and choose to enroll at UCLA once admitted.

Today, UCLA receives more applications than any other university in the nation and admits students from a very competitive pool. Like every student at UCLA, the black students admitted are extremely high-achieving. In 2013, 41 percent of the black students we admitted chose to enroll at UCLA. Other applicants elected to attend universities such as Stanford, Cornell, MIT or other UCs instead. We recognize that many students choose other institutions for a variety of reasons but our research suggests that chief among those reasons is the limited amount of scholarship funds available to undergraduate students at UCLA.

CUARS will continue to promote admissions practices that admit the best and the brightest students from all over the country and the world, but to enroll a diverse community of the most promising students, the university must be financially accessible. The current UCLA capital campaign includes fundraising for undergraduate scholarships. Our hope is that a successful capital campaign will generate new scholarships and grants for all financially eligible undergraduate students, making attending UCLA more affordable for all and, in turn, greatly increasing our yield of black admits.

While securing external funding is an excellent place to start, CUARS also supports pursuing other lasting and equitable solutions as well. The committee will focus on this issue during the 2013-2014 academic year and welcomes any input from the UCLA community and particularly from our students.

We applaud the work that many faculty, staff and students are engaged in to raise awareness and increase dialogue about race and campus climate here at UCLA. While discussion alone cannot enact the climate changes we all hope to see, it is a critical first step. Furthermore, improving our recruitment and yield for underrepresented students on campus is critical to creating the diverse and open campus climate that we all seek to achieve. We encourage all members of the UCLA community to seek out opportunities to partner with us and our colleagues in the admissions office in these efforts. CUARS and the admissions office will continue to join with other campus efforts to improve the racial climate on campus and promote diversity in its many forms.

Members of CUARS:

Robert Cooper (chair)

Adriana Galvan (vice chair)

Robijn Bruinsma

Adrienne Lavine

Kelly Lytle-Hernandez

Sarah Reber

Robert Chao Romero

Dorothy Wiley

Correction: The word “students” was omitted from the sixth paragraph.