Idan Ivri Ivri is a third-year political
science student just giving his opinion. E-mail your opinion to him
at iivri@media.ucla.edu.
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For the past few years, UCLA has suffered from bitter arguments
about how to create a diversity of race and background in the
student body. The debates over the regents’ SP-1 and 2
inflamed both sides of the affirmative action debate. Both sides
were blinded by the rhetoric and overlooked an important third
alternative: community college transfer students.
Community colleges are designed to appeal to a very wide
spectrum of students. Students from either wealthy families or
low-income families can attend. Students from affluent high schools
often take community college courses for two years to ensure they
will be accepted by tough universities (like UCLA), while students
from poorly funded areas attend because their high schools were
ineffective.
Community colleges can be found in almost every large town or
city across all types of communities. Because anyone willing to
learn can attend, the diversity in these schools is usually greater
than the intellectual, economic or racial diversity of students at
selective universities. The community college students, however, do
have one thing in common with students at four-year schools ““
the ambition to learn.
Since the SAT I has lost popularity among colleges, the best
predictor of whether high school students will do well in college
has been their high school GPA. Along these same lines, a community
college GPA would also be a great predictor of success at major
universities. The lower-level course work is largely similar
between large state universities (like UCLA) and community
colleges.
With these facts in mind, it becomes clear that the diverse
group of students who earn good grades at community colleges have
both the ambition and the skills to succeed at a school like
UCLA.
UCLA is off to a very good start in finding and recruiting
community college transfers. The UCLA Transfer Alliance Program is
a model of how this type of recruiting should be done. Community
colleges throughout the state have developed specific curricula
designed to ease the transfer hassles to UCLA. This course work
fulfills GE and pre-major requirements, allowing these students to
concentrate on their field of interest once they get here.
At the community colleges, TAP course work is considered an
extra honors-level option. Students freely choose to pursue this
course of extra work and must do well in it. There are faculty and
counselors both at the participating colleges and at UCLA to help
in the process. Best of all, those students who succeed in the
required transfer courses at the college get priority consideration
for admission into the UCLA College of Letters & Science, since
they’ve proven their ability to handle college-level
work.
With this type of program in effect, a huge number of students
from underrepresented communities can receive UCLA degrees while
only sacrificing their general education years at the
university.
Unfortunately, the list of participating colleges is mostly
limited to Southern California. I agree with limiting the schools
to California, but at least a few community colleges from the Bay
Area should be included as well.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of underrepresented areas of
Southern California the UCLA TAP is helping.
Earlier this year Chancellor Carnesale went to East Los Angeles
College to promote awareness of the transfer program. It is just
this type of publicity that participating TAP schools need. As
students at TAP schools become more aware that they have a good
opportunity to transfer to UCLA, I believe we will see an increased
level of diversity of all kinds.
The arguments over affirmative action have become so heated and
philosophical that many have lost touch with the true goal. Instead
of focusing on getting a wider variety of backgrounds represented
at good schools, both sides have been mired in theoretical debates
that nobody can win. Programs like the UCLA TAP, on the other hand,
actually make a difference in the meantime.