UC Regents OK Plan to Tighten Eligibility Rules

A committee of the University of California’s Board of Regents on Wednesday endorsed a proposal to tighten freshman eligibility requirements but delayed a final vote on the plan’s most controversial aspect: raising minimum grade-point averages.

The delay came amid concerns from several legislators and others that the new requirements could disproportionately affect African American and Latino students. Generating the most debate was the proposal to raise the minimum grade-point average for UC-eligible students from 2.8 to 3.1.

UC President Robert C. Dynes said several regents had asked for the delay because they said they had not had enough time to study the proposal and its implications. The full board will probably vote on the grade-point change in a special meeting next month, when it is also expected to approve its overall budget for the next school year.

The eligibility proposal was prompted by budget constraints and a recent study showing that too many students were meeting the existing standards. Dynes and faculty representatives said that the proposed revisions would reduce the eligibility rates for students of all ethnicities and that they were chosen over other alternatives because studies showed they would have “the least negative impact” on African American, Latino and Native American students, who are considered underrepresented at UC campuses.

But figures released by the university Wednesday showed that the changes would have a slightly greater impact on African Americans and Latinos than other groups. And several speakers, including state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley), criticized the university for the dwindling number of African American and Latino students at its most competitive campuses, UC Berkeley and UCLA.

Alarcon, who chairs a Senate select committee on higher education admissions and outreach, called it “unconscionable” that the number of such students attending the two schools had fallen in recent years, since the statewide ban on affirmative action was passed in 1996.

University officials said they were doing their best, within legal bounds, to admit and enroll all eligible students.

Under the 1960 master plan for the state’s colleges and universities, UC is to draw its freshmen from the top eighth academically -- or 12.5% -- of the state’s high school graduates, while the California State University system is to draw from the top third. The plan is not legally binding but has long been a broad guideline for the state’s institutions of higher education.

But a state study released in May found that UC was going beyond its target, with 14.4% of the state’s high school graduates last year meeting its minimum eligibility requirements. (Students who are admitted to the university typically must meet separate, often higher standards for the campuses at which they hope to enroll.)

The changes endorsed on a 11-2 vote are aimed at reducing the university’s pool of eligible students to its master plan target over three years.

Under the revisions, UC applicants, beginning in fall 2005, would calculate their grade-point average based on all 15 UC-required courses taken in their sophomore and junior years of high school. Faculty representatives said most UC campuses were already doing this, but UC policy has allowed the number to be based only on the student’s eight highest grades in those required classes in those years.

But the proposal’s most significant change, raising the minimum required GPA to 3.1 on a 4-point scale, would be delayed two years, even if the regents eventually approved it. It would take effect for students entering the university in fall 2007.

Several regents Wednesday said that with a booming population of college-age students, the university should consider going beyond its master plan to take more freshmen. But others said the university was unlikely to be able to afford that, given the state’s budget problems.