A Long Way to Go

Striking gains in minority enrollment last fall at the University of California at Berkeley and at UCLA show what can happen when a goal is taken seriously. Minority groups made up 44.7% of the UCLA freshman class and 36.7% of Berkeley freshmen. Many of those freshmen were Asian students, who were already well represented in comparison to their numbers in the population. But other minorities also made substantial gains.

The increases run counter to a trend at many universities, where minority enrollment has leveled off or dropped. And they did not just happen. They reflect commitment to change at the top levels of both campuses and determined staff efforts to find minority students and smooth their way into university life.

At UCLA, where blacks make up 8.3% of fresh-men and Latinos 13.9%, the university has concentrated on working with students in junior high school while they are still making up their minds about college. UC Berkeley, where blacks are 7.4% of the freshmen and Latinos 8.8%, aggressively pursues minority students for its campus; it is also trying to ensure that those students learn much more quickly about available financial aid and housing than often has been the case.

More remains to be done. Black high-school graduates are the least likely to meet entrance requirements, with only 3.6% eligible for UC and 10.1% for Cal State in 1983. Among Latinos, 4.9% of high-school graduates were eligible for UC and 15.3% for Cal State. Latinos are also the least likely among the major ethnic groups actually to enroll. Many blacks and Latinos who do enroll don’t graduate.

No one knows better than the admission offices that they cannot sit back and congratulate themselves or the gains will slide away. The efforts require a continuing commitment of state money as well; the three elements of California’s higher-education system are spending $48.5 million this year on their equal-opportunity programs.

The beginnings of success at Berkeley and Westwood leave much to be achieved. But even at this early stage they are yardsticks by which other campuses in the UC and Cal State systems must measure their own efforts to increase minority enrollment. Most have a long way to go.