IRVINE ““ University of California President Richard
Atkinson responded to concerns on a wide range of issues, including
admissions policy, at a gathering of UC alumni Monday evening.
Members of the Alumni Association of the University of
California, along with others who were simply interested in the UC,
met at the Hyatt Regency hotel near the UC Irvine campus. Following
brief remarks, Atkinson, who makes few public appearances, answered
audience questions.
Though the evening’s atmosphere was generally sociable,
some came to address specific matters before the president. Among
these was David Benjamin, a critic of comprehensive review who also
runs an SAT and college preparation business in Irvine called Ahead
of the Class.
Benjamin thinks students from underperforming high schools would
benefit more from other segments of California’s higher
education system than direct admission to the UC under
comprehensive review.
“Clearly the community college path is a better
way,” he said before the event.
Benjamin had communicated his objections to comprehensive review
to Atkinson before. In a letter written earlier this month,
Benjamin stated that the policy substitutes for racial preferences
and requested an external audit of comprehensive review.
After the event, Atkinson said there is no need for a
controversy over comprehensive review.
“I don’t think it’s a very important
issue,” he said.
Comprehensive review, approved by the UC Board of Regents last
November, modified undergraduate admissions policies to take
personal experiences and life challenges into greater account
relative to grades and standardized test scores.
Assessments of life experience can impact which campus a student
attends, though whether an applicant gets in to the UC system in
the first place is determined by academics.
At the regents’ meeting in September, Regent Ward Connerly
proposed the UC allow an external review to determine whether race
is a factor in admissions.
Connerly, who, unlike Benjamin, supports comprehensive review in
principle, feels an outside review of the policy is needed to
respond to public concerns.
“Anytime someone says, “˜I think the university is
discriminating against me,’ we have a responsibility to look into
that,” he said Tuesday in Sacramento.
A faculty report on comprehensive review is already under way,
and is expected to be completed before the regents November
meeting. Senior Vice President of University Affairs Bruce Darling,
also at the event, said the faculty report will be sufficiently
independent, since admissions are handled by UC administrators, not
professors.
“You don’t usually hear faculty being sycophantic to
administration,” he said.
Following his public comments, Atkinson said changes will be
made to comprehensive review if the faculty report leaves
unanswered questions.
Benjamin was joined by parents sharing his concerns.
Barry Resnick, a counselor at Santiago Canyon College in Orange,
whose son declined to attend the UC despite being admitted to both
the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses, said before the event that
the decision was made out of expectations that UC education would
decline if admissions are not based on grades.
Atkinson answered questions on several issues besides
comprehensive review. Subjects addressed included labor
negotiations with lecturers, whether university faculty is
overwhelmingly liberal, and university funding.
Similar events are scheduled to be held in San Diego, Fresno and
Cupertino.