The Student Initiated Access Center and Committee has worked since 1998 doing outreach to communities of underrepresented minorities, and now they are looking to recently released data about 2008-2009 applicants to the University of California as a measure of their success.
The data showed a 16 percent increase in minority applicants to UCLA in the past year, fulfilling part of the central mission of the center. It consists of seven student-run, student-initiated outreach projects that help facilitate student growth by encouraging parent involvement as well as providing peer advising, tutoring and workshops to its predominantly minority demographic.
One of the center’s major goals is to empower its students to become proactive toward attaining higher education.
“I imagine the Student Initiated Access Center, in conjunction with other student-initiated groups, help impact the percentage of minority applicants to UCLA,” said Richard Stevenson, SIAC chairman.
Since 2007, UCLA admissions has used a holistic approach toward its applicants. This method stresses putting emphasis on students’ achievements in context with their backgrounds, which the center helps with.
Stevenson said the center empowers students socially, politically, and culturally and helps them understand how to apply to colleges and what is required of them.
“Lots of these high school graduation requirements don’t even meet up with UCLA admission standards,” said Nick de Ocampo, president of Samahang Pilipino. “The center helps provides tools to students who are normally ineligible.”
The Student Initiated Access Center was established in 1998 in response to Proposition 209, which prohibited affirmative action in public institution admissions in 1996. Since then, there has been a decline in the number of minority students admitted to UCLA.
“The committee was the response from students who identified a need for diversity at UCLA,” said Mia Watson, the SIAC adviser. “Many of these students were from minority groups themselves.”
De Ocampo said he believes that, even with the increase of minority applicants to UCLA, the campus’s diversity still does not reflect the demographics of Los Angeles.
“Admissions often does not account for the pressure on the lives of these students or the opportunities that are not available,” Stevenson said.
Out of the 55,369 applicants to UCLA for 2008-2009, 2,798 are black, 299 are American Indian, and 10,234 are Latino. The applicant pool is also getting more competitive, with rising GPAs and SAT scores.
“There is still too much emphasis on academics,” de Ocampo said. “I think there should be an improved dialogue between admissions and the center to figure out why underrepresented students aren’t gaining as much access.”
Stevenson said he would like to see a larger presence from admissions in the schools of students who do not feel they would be eligible for UCLA. He said he believes students and parents recognize when colleges reach out to them and reaffirm their efforts.
Stevenson said the center does not exist to recruit for UCLA, but rather to help connect students to higher education.
The committee evaluates, advocates and distributes funds to each of its seven projects. Each project is also associated with a campus organization specific to a particular ethnic group, although it possesses a diverse staff that promotes cross-cultural collaboration.
The Mentors for Academic and Peer Support project primarily supports Jordan High School in Watts, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation. The population of the school is 21 percent black and 79 percent Latino.
Dina Mahmood, access coordinator for the Muslim Student Association which sponsors the Watts mentor program, said she appreciates the broader underlying principles behind these programs.
“I think what’s unique about the Student Initiated Access Center is that this mission isn’t limited to Watts. Instead, you have lots of people from different backgrounds working towards a common struggle,” she said.