Enrollment of 3 Minorities at UC Fell Last Fall

After a decade of steady increases, the numbers of African-Americans, Latinos and American Indians enrolling as freshman at University of California campuses dipped last fall, a UC report has found.

The decrease--from 4,383 freshmen from these groups in the fall of 1989 to 3,884 in the fall of 1990--is the first since UC began special minority recruitment efforts more than 25 years ago, the report said. The largest enrollment declines were among blacks, down 322 from the year before, and Latinos, down 229.

The report did not provide campus-by-campus information.

But a separate student profile compiled annually at UC Irvine shows an exception to the statewide drop-off, with a continued, though small increase in minority enrollment locally.

From the fall of 1989 to the fall of 1990, undergraduate enrollment among blacks crept from 2.9% of the student population to 3% and Latino from 9% to 9.5%; that of American Indians remained at 0.5% of the student population.

UCI had a total of 13,682 undergraduates in the fall of 1990.

The systemwide study did not include Asian-Americans because they are not considered an under-represented group. But the UCI report showed that group rising from 35.1% of the undergraduate population in 1989 to 37.3% last year.

The report on undergraduate students is one of three affirmative-action reports compiled annually. It will be presented to the Board of Regents at its meeting at UCLA on Thursday, along with reports on admissions policies and on graduate students and academic employees.

The three minority groups were targeted because their eligibility and enrollment rates are substantially below the rate for students overall, UC officials said.

Overall, the report found continued academic progress for the under-represented minorities. Their numbers within the ranks of UC’s undergraduates swelled from 8,145 in 1976 to 21,129 in 1990.

“We are generally pleased because (the report shows) under-represented minorities have made significant gains overall at the undergraduate level,” UC spokesman Mike Alva said Friday.

“However, the university is concerned about a decline in the number (of students from these groups) among new freshmen,” Alva added.

Alva said the state university system is trying to determine causes for the decline, including a drop in the number of high school graduates throughout California. The drop can be attributed to demographic shifts, and the trend is expected to be reversed soon as the students now crowding the state’s elementary and secondary schools reach college age, he said.

Another possible cause is increased competition among universities for qualified minority students, Alva said.