The UC Board of Regents debated a proposal which would eliminate the requirement for the SAT subject tests, thereby increasing the number of the eligible applicants for the university.
The proposed plan would take effect for the enrollment class of fall 2012 and would reduce the number of students who are guaranteed admission to the University of California.
Any further decision on the multifaceted plan is postponed until the regents’ next meeting in the fall.
Regent Eddie Island, the chairman of the educational policy committee, proposed holding a separate meeting for the regents to discuss the matter.
“It’s too important to rush through. It’s too important to delay,” Island said about the recommendations.
UC Davis engineering Professor Mark Rashid and chairman of the university faculty’s Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, said the goal of the proposal is to grant a larger group of students the opportunity to have their applications reviewed.
The number of students guaranteed admission would decrease from 12.5 percent to roughly 10 percent of high school graduates. Though the number of guaranteed spots would diminish, the plan would allow admissions officers to consider a greater pool of applicants. Admissions officers would be able to consider applicants which would otherwise be disqualified because they failed to meet one of the eligibility criteria, such as the subject exams.
The changes are intended to help applicants who come from backgrounds where they did not have the opportunity to enroll in as many honors or college prep courses or who did not receive enough information to place them on the path to a UC. Advocates of the proposed changes said they hoped applicants from underrepresented communities would benefit, such as minority, low-income and rural students.
The plan would decrease the number of mandatory college prep courses from 15 to 11, which applicants must take by the end of their junior year.
It would also eliminate the SAT subject test component of the application which requires a minimum of two additional subject exams, typically in areas such as math or foreign language. Critics of the subject tests have argued that the exams are often the reason why applicants are ineligible for admission though they may have good grades and SAT scores.
It is a matter of eligibility for students who otherwise may have their good merits overlooked, said Homaira Hosseini, president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council. She said that oftentimes, students from disadvantaged districts are limited to where they can apply because their school doesn’t offer the appropriate courses.
“It’s out of their control so it has nothing to do with their merit,” Hosseini said.
The 3.0 GPA required by current applicants would also be lowered to a 2.8 unweighted GPA, which would not account for honors courses. Supporters of the changes argued that the unweighted GPA is roughly the equivalent of the 3.0 GPA.
Some of the regents expressed concerns over the plan, with some arguing that it could be perceived by some as a lowering of the UC’s standards. Regent George Marcus expressed concerns over the possible dual standards that could arise from the proposed changes.
“Basically, we’re going to take a seat away from someone who followed the rules for someone who didn’t follow the rules; we’re lowering our standards,” Marcus said.
The board decided to withhold any further discussion on the proposal until their next meeting in the fall.