WASFAA - Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators

June/July 2002

Online Publication

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More minority students were admitted to the UC system in 2001 than in 1995.

WASFAA Happenings ...
UC Touts Diversity Gains in New Era
by Tami Sato, EDAC Committee Chair
Southern CA College of Optometry

In 1999 the UC Board of Regents guaranteed admission to students in the top 4 percent of their high school classes. This program initiated to increase the ethnic and geographic diversity of University of California campuses appears to be working at UCI, which this year enrolled freshmen from 53 California high schools that had never before sent students to the Irvine campus.

The 2-year-old Eligibility in the Local Context program -which succeeded affirmative action and guarantees spots to the top 4 percent of students from each state high school - was meant to provide a pathway for students at schools that produce low UC enrollment, usually those with large numbers of poor and minority students.

Officials estimated receiving 2,065 fall 2002 applications from students who otherwise would not have applied, about half from underrepresented groups, primarily blacks and Latinos. But the most striking gains have been geographic. At UCI, for example, students were enrolled this year for the first time from rural schools in Salinas, Stockton, Benicia, Hanford and Little Rock. The gain is attributed in part to schools soliciting students who don't live near any UC campus.

More minority students were admitted to the UC system in 2001 than in 1995, when affirmative-action policies were still in place. But the percentage of minorities among all admissions is about the same as it was in 1995.

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