Berkeley Makes Its Pitch to Top Minority Students

In a room designed for two, four Latino high school valedictorians are squished sardine-like in puffy sleeping bags. Although a dorm room floor is hardly a four-star hotel, this is part of UC Berkeley’s not-so-soft-sell approach to attracting top minority students -- and whites too -- from Southern California.

The Fly to Berkeley program pays for five planeloads of students with Latino, African American, Native American, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander and Filipino backgrounds to spend a weekend on campus. About 400 high schoolers, hosted by the university and its active minority student groups, recently were treated to picnics, parties and panels and major schmoozing.

Also as part of the program, about 100 white and other Asian students come later in the week, hosted by the university and, because no campus organization volunteered, by residential halls.

The university and its minority student groups want to persuade these sought-after seniors, many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college, to shun Stanford, USC and UCLA for Cal. To cover the costs of the weekend, the university pays about $200 per student. The focus is on Southern California because that’s where the greatest reservoir of minority students lives.

Despite what appears to be an unstated attempt to encourage minority students to attend Berkeley, Richard Black, the vice chancellor for admissions and enrollment, said the program does not run afoul of the state law barring racial preferences in admissions.

The program draws from a pool of high school seniors of all races and ethnicities who attend the lowest-performing 40% of California schools, based on test scores. It also draws private-school students from low-income families.

“What makes it legal is that it’s not race-based,” Black said. “The students are invited by high school or by our outreach program or because they’re private-school students from low-income families.” They are not, he said, chosen by race.

Among public schools in the state, the Fly to Berkeley program is believed to be unique. One week ago, a giddy group of students boarded a Southwest flight north. Many were excited to visit Berkeley, but few were committed.

The weekend clearly changed some minds.

Before landing, Andrea Banuelos, 18, was weighing Berkeley and UCLA. “It was,” she said, “50/50.” As she rolled up her sleeping bag and packed her shorts -- clothes more appropriate to sunny Southern California than cold, wet Berkeley -- the ratio, she said, had shifted to “95% for Berkeley, 5%, UCLA.”

Not everyone was won over. Her friend, Magdalena Guadalupe, 17, loved Berkeley but said she would probably attend Stanford. “When I told my parents I got into Stanford, my mother said, ‘OK.’ She was happy about it, but I don’t think she understood what a great honor it is to get into such a prestigious school.”

Guadalupe understood. As with many first-generation students, these high schoolers said their parents support higher education but assumed they would attend local community colleges or nearby UCLA. Why go to Berkeley, their parents ask, when they could attend UCLA? Which is exactly why Berkeley sponsors the weekend visits.

Vu T. Tran, director of undergraduate admissions at UCLA, doesn’t object to Berkeley’s raiding his neighborhood. The competition for students, he said, “is really the nature of admissions for all selective campuses during the month of April.”

In fact, some minority parents are reluctant to send their children north for the free weekend. Berkeley freshman Elisa Contreras said Latino parents are especially hesitant to send their daughters for a weekend. She and other members of La Rasa Recruitment and Retention Center phone the parents to reassure them.

Throughout the University of California system, the admission of freshmen from underrepresented minorities fell after the campuses ended affirmative action in 1997. Although freshman admission numbers systemwide have recovered and for the last two years have been above 1997 levels, UC Berkeley continues to admit far fewer black, Latino and Native American freshmen. Among California high school students accepted this spring at Berkeley, 17.3% were black, Latino or Native American, down from 25.3% in 1997.

Allynn Umel, a Filipino American sociology major who helped organize the weekend, said she believes the program doesn’t go far enough. “This program is necessary to help maintain things the way they currently are,” she said. But it “does little to change the acceptance rate.... It doesn’t deal with the fundamental problems of students of color who are not getting accepted to the UC schools.”

The Berkeley program is being offered in a year that has seen several prominent schools around the country drop outreach programs aimed at minorities because of challenges on civil rights grounds by two anti-affirmative action groups. One group is the American Civil Rights Institute in Sacramento, founded by UC Regent Ward Connerly, and the other is the Center for Equal Opportunity in Sterling, Va.

Edward Blum, an official with both groups, said he has not reviewed the Fly to Berkeley program, but added that if it “doesn’t have race or ethnicity as a requirement to participate, then we likely wouldn’t have a problem with it.” Yet from the perspective of the minority student organizations that host the teenagers, the purpose clearly is intended to draw minorities to campus.

It can be a tricky dance.

“They have to stay within the constraints of the law and do what they can to maintain diversity,” said Samuel Lucas, a Berkeley sociology professor who studies tracking and social stratification. “Encouraging students who come from communities that have not historically had access to Cal is a good thing,” he said, “regardless of racial diversity.”

The Fly to Berkeley program is one of many efforts to lure promising students to the university. Berkeley also conducts outreach efforts at high schools, middle schools and even elementary campuses, informing students and their parents of the courses required for a UC education. It urges students in math, the sciences and music to think of Berkeley from an early age.

The weekend program appears to be successful: Of the high school seniors accepted at Berkeley, about 40% enroll. Of those who attend the program, the figure rises to 60%.

Whatever the statistics, anecdotal results are encouraging. “They showed us they want us to come here,” said Rosanna Bules, 18, of Hesperia, who’s leaning toward Berkeley, “No other school did that.”

Ryan Rideau, an English major and an organizer with the Black Recruitment and Resource Center, said his group addressed issues unique to African Americans.

“High schools are so segregated that it can be hard for these students to make the transition,” Rideau said. At times, he said, a black student is “the only one in the classroom.” His group familiarizes seniors with available resources such as study groups and tutoring. Berkeley is a great place, he said, “but it’s not for everyone.”

Times staff writer Stuart Silverstein contributed to this report.