The UCLA Academic Senate approved a “holistic”
approach to admissions Thursday evening.
Starting with this year’s applicants, UCLA will change the
way undergraduate applications are read and scored to allow more of
an emphasis on personal achievements.
UCLA has been criticized recently for declining numbers of
underrepresented minority admits.
Though administrators have not said that the change in the
admissions process is meant specifically to increase
underrepresented minority students at UCLA, acting Chancellor
Norman Abrams has said that he hopes the new process will enhance
diversity.
“UCLA will work toward having more diversity because
it’s important,” Abrams said. “It’s an
important part of the social learning experience. If there is one
thing I am intolerant of, it is intolerance itself.”
Following the 1996 passage of Proposition 209, which banned the
use of race or ethnicity in admissions, UCLA was unable to
implement affirmative action, which it had used since the late
1960s.
After the passage of Proposition 209, UCLA’s numbers of
underrepresented minority students fell. This year, 95 black
students have submitted statements of intent to register, the
lowest number in decades.
In the new process, each application will be read as a whole and
scored as a package. Previously, applications have been divided
into sections, with each section reviewed separately.
The new process allows applications to be scored based on the
entire application and has been called holistic by
administrators.
As before, the packages will be read by several different
University of California employees.
Thomas Lifka, assistant vice chancellor for student academic
services, has said the change is a philosophical one, and that the
university has been considering it for over a year.
He said the goal was to avoid admitting an applicant based on
one factor.
Now that the admissions process has been officially approved,
administrators need to work out all of the details, according to a
UCLA press release.
Janina Montero, vice chancellor of student affairs, has said
Abrams promised sufficient resources to allow this transition to
take place.