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Watch out, Westwood! The color spectrum in Bruinville just got ever so slightly darker. Today's L.A. Times reports that a whopping 203 black students have decided to enroll in next fall's freshman class, out of the nearly 400 that were accepted. This is a 100% increase from last year's debacle, when only about 100 black students enrolled for the fall quarter. Campus officials attribute the rise in minority enrollments to a new "holistic" admissions process and an increase in the number of private scholarships for black students.
Um. Well. We're not quite sure what to say. Go Bruins? Keep up the good work? African Americans make up about 10% of the population of Los Angeles County. We're not real good on the math stuff, but 203 students out of 4,500 total who will be enrolling in the fall works out to about...4.5%. Not bad, but there's still a ways to go.
Minority enrollments are also on the rise at UC Berkeley; blacks and Latinos have been applying to the other UCs in increased numbers as well. Ward Connerly, former UC Regent who spearheaded the call for race-blind admissions, has been continuing his meritocratic campaign across the country, however, and plans to hit up states like Arizona, Colorado, and Oklahoma next year.
It's already been ten years since Prop 209 ended affirmative action at the UCs. In a perfect world, race would not be a factor in college admissions, but (sorry Mr.Connerly!), the California educational system is far from perfect. In an academic milieu where AP scores and honors classes can push GPAs into the 4.9s, usually it's students at schools without the funding for these sorts of classes that get the shaft.
In an even more perfect world, educational equity would start in kindergarten, not in college. But as long as teachers get paid half as much as doctors and lawyers do, and as long as our local, state, and national governments continue to privilege things like "national security" and "border patrol" over education for our kids, that's not going to happen either.
Although any increase in diversity at UCLA is a step in the right direction, let's hope the next ten years show some major improvement. Ten percent in 2017!
Photo by cindylu
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I think the best way to combat the lack of diversity (racial and socio-economic) is to guarantee admission to UC for the top 5 or 10 % of every high school's graduating class, along with guaranteed financial assistance. It'll probably go much further than the current system.
I went to UCLA and I myself would like to see more diversity at the school - although, compared to most schools in the country, it is probably a thousand times more diverse.
Seriously, rather than getting on UCLA's case about how many blacks or Latinos they admit, perhaps the ire should be directed toward the school districts in charge of these students for the 12 years prior to their application. There should be no "minimum". Don't treat this as a system of quotas because the university is there to accept the best possible students. If they have nothing to gauge that student's prospects on besides the fact that they are black, it doesn't help. Do you expect them to say "oh, they're black, it is very likely that they are super-smart but they just had a hard time in the neighborhood they grew up in so let's admit them and they'll blossom"?
If there are borderline black candidates, then they should definitely be admitted if their backgrounds tell of a difficult situation throughout their youth. What's funny is that no one mentions how many black students APPLIED.
Also, the California Community College system allows for a great deal of flexibility to get into the UCs if it doesn't work out the first time around. If one is committed to getting into UCLA, there are numerous avenues.
Seriously, I'd love to see more, studious black students at UCLA because let me tell you, the athletes aren't improving their image much (of course, that holds true for almost all athletes).
Dan, I'm pretty sure that's the case at UC Riverside and one of the others (I can't remember right now), guaranteed admission for the top 3% maybe?
You know, I've looked at the racial composition of some of the top schools in the country: Harvard, Yale, etc and they generally have about 10% of the entering class identifying themselves as Black/African American. Compare that to the less than 5% at a public school, you really have to wonder what the hell is going on.
blacks are under-represented because they aren't as qualified as the general population. even at 4.5%, they are over-represented if you take into account their merit. perhaps blacks should be sent to lower UC campuses because that is where they belong, and not at ucla or berkeley. ever consider that?!?!
UC has a process called Eligibility in the Local Context which takes the top 4% of students.
Amadeo,
There are plenty of highly competitive black students in the state of California. However, UC can't compete when it comes to private colleges and universities who can offer those students coveted scholarships. I guess what you're proposing is a segregated public university system. And no, I've never considered it because it went out of fashion in the 1950s.
William,
Go to Google and you'll easily find the number of African American students who applied to UCLA (a press release from January says 2,444). Since it's May, the press releases right now are about how many students sent in their statement of intent to register.
Accepting students by merit is segregation?
And accepting less qualified black students is not segregation?
Why are graduation statistics for Blacks so low? Maybe they can't compete against qualified students.
Perhaps it is better for blacks to attend schools where they can COMPETE (i.e. lower UCs, cal states, and communtiy colleges).
What a brain-washed AZN you are.
amadeo
have you ever considered that the quality (or lack thereof) of the K-12 schools in most black neighborhoods might be part of the reasons that they dont "merit" acceptance in UCs?
and have you ever considered that keeping them out of our best public universities will only perpetuate this bad situation?
you are proof that our school systems need improvement since youre clearly lacking any common sense or the ability to critically think.
You are proof that our school systems need improvement. You lack the ability to use commas, apostrophes, or reason rationally.
It's victicrats like yourself that prevent minorities from making improvements. People like you just want hand outs. UCLA is for those who deserve it and can manage to graduate. For many blacks, a lower UC, a Cal State, or a community college is a better alternative. If affirmative action truly worked, it would end at the undergraduate level. But favorable treatment for blacks has seeped into graduate admissions and to the work force: all proof that blacks can't survive with a subsidized existence. I'll spare you the same "insults" that you have so childishly posted. :)
you didnt answer the questions
nor do you deserve proper punctuation
that was an awfully short concession post.
feel free to go ahead and change your user name, "tony" :/
happy mother's day!!
why do you insist on avoiding the questions that were posed to you?
what exactly are you afraid of?
amando, why is it that USC, Stanford, USF, the Claremount Colleges, Harvard, Yale and MIT have far more Black Students that UCLA, CAL and the other UC schools...it's because, as Cindy said, private schools, and public schools with affirmative action programs like North Carolina can treat smart Black students the way UCLA and Cal wines and dines Black kids who can play football or basketball? Also if admission to UC was based solely on meritoricy, the entire UC system would be Asian because California Asians, Asians from other parts of the United States and overseas Asians score the highest on the test and have the best GPAs, and far more Asians qualify for admission to the 10 UC undergrad schools than can be admitted. A big factor in UC's admission policy is extracurricular activities such as participation in athletics, the arts, music, service and community groups, a factor that insures diversity. Kids who are involved in these activities are often given an edge over most Asian kids who aren't involved in sports or other extracurricular activity. A kid with a 4.5 and a perfect test score who is turned down at UCLA in favor of the next Michael Jordan will have no problem getting into Caltech, where extracurricular activity or California high school football or basketball player of the year honors have on impact on admissions.