Lawsuit Accuses University of Admissions Bias

Three Latino students rejected by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo have sued the state university, contending that its admission system had illegally discriminated against them by giving undue weight to SAT scores and favoring applicants from the geographic area around the campus.

Thomas A. Saenz, a lawyer for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund who is representing the students, said Cal Poly’s admissions system is discriminatory because Latinos in California score lower on the SAT, on average, than whites. Also, he said, the surrounding areas have fewer Latino and other minorities than the state as a whole.

Cal Poly’s director of public affairs, Leah Kolt, said university officials could not comment because they had not seen the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, an advocacy group, also is a plaintiff.

Cal Poly uses a mathematical formula to admit undergraduates. Among other things, the formula awards points to applicants on the basis of their SAT scores. Students from the school’s “service area,” which stretches from Kings County to Lompoc, are awarded extra points. The school is one of several Cal State campuses to consider geography in admissions.

The suit contends that 55% of high school students in the Cal Poly service area are white, but that the statewide high school population is 38% white. Latinos make up 35% of the high school population in the service area, but 40% of all California high school students. The service area also contains proportionately fewer African American and Asian American high school students than the statewide high school population.

Saenz argued that Cal Poly is “paid for by the entire state of California, and by design is supposed to be open and available to any resident.... There’s a problem with assigning preference to a local area, when a prestigious university’s local area is less diverse than the state.”

According to 2003 College Board California data, Mexican Americans had a mean combined math and verbal SAT score of 887. Other Latinos in California had an 894 mean score; the mean score for whites was 1084. The maximum SAT score is 800 on each section, or 1600 combined.

The lawsuit is basing its claims on California laws that prohibit discrimination by institutions that receive state funds. Federal courts have ruled that plaintiffs must prove an intent to discriminate. The state allows legal challenges based on discriminatory effects.

USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky said the suit would test “the extent to which it’s possible to sue against practices which have a discriminatory impact, without discriminatory purpose.”

According to an analysis of figures provided by Cal Poly officials, black, Latino and Native American students were admitted at lower rates than whites and Asian Americans for this year’s freshman class.

In all, 38.4% of the 20,827 applicants for the fall 2003 freshman class were accepted by Cal Poly. But 42.2% of whites and 38.2% of Asian Americans were admitted; the figures were 21.4% for blacks, 25.9% for Latinos and 35.8% for Native Americans.

Two of the three plaintiffs in the lawsuit are from Southern California and one is from Salinas, Calif. Erika Medina, a Commerce resident who graduated from Bell Gardens High School in Bell Gardens, attends University of the Redlands. Miguel Puente, also a Bell Gardens High graduate, is enrolled in a flight school, and Rita Garcia, of Salinas, attends Cal Poly Pomona.

Times staff writer Stuart Silverstein contributed to this report.