Wilson Urges UC to Drop VIP Programs

Gov. Pete Wilson, who has led the fight to roll back affirmative action, urged the University of California on Thursday to abolish any programs that give preference to VIP requests for student admissions.

In a brief interview, Wilson said the prestigious Berkeley campus in particular should dismantle its special admissions system, saying “there should not be a VIP committee” to review requests from politicians, UC officials and donors.

Sean Walsh, Wilson’s press secretary, said later that Wilson would extend the ban on favoritism to include other schools in the nine-campus public university system.

“[Wilson] doesn’t believe there should be a special committee set up at any UC campus to confer political or preferential treatment to any student,” Walsh said.

However, neither Wilson nor Walsh would spell out whether the governor plans to call on the Board of Regents, of which he is a member, to take any action to reach his goal of eliminating preferences in admissions.

Comments by the governor and his spokesman came in response to a Times story Wednesday reporting that in the past four years a special review committee at Berkeley has given more than 200 applicants “some special consideration” and that 19 students who would not otherwise have been admitted were provided undergraduate slots.

Earlier, The Times reported that several UC regents who voted to eliminate affirmative action admissions had privately used their positions to get relatives, friends and children of business partners into UCLA, sometimes ahead of hundreds of better-qualified students.

The governor, who records show has made two requests to UCLA and a number of others through UC’s Sacramento lobbyist, indicated Thursday that he did not see anything wrong with standard letters of recommendation.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people testifying to the good characters of applicants,” Wilson said. “That shouldn’t affect the admissions process.”

However, the standard application form for undergraduates tells prospective students: “Do not include letters of recommendation . . . and other supporting documentation such as awards, photographs, poetry, etc., to the processor. They will not be forwarded, returned or retained.”

Wilson’s comments came just a day after his close ally in the anti-affirmative-action fight, Regent Ward Connerly, also called on Berkeley to disband its special admissions panel.

Connerly made his appeal when asked about student requests he made to UC Berkeley. Records show that Connerly, champion of the anti-affirmative-action initiative on the state’s November ballot, was listed as the “advocate” this year for two students later admitted to UC Berkeley. Connerly said he was not aware that the names were forwarded to a special review committee.

UC officials declined to respond to the calls by Wilson and Connerly for elimination of the five-member committee set up in the early 1980s.

“It would be premature to say anything at this point,” said UC spokesman Mike Lassiter, adding that the university’s internal review of VIP admissions requests is ongoing.”

“We’ve asked [the campuses] for any recommendations they would have on handling appeals, any changes in the appeals process,” Lassiter said. “Once that is in, we will evaluate the situation. As we have said previously, we have no policy for preferential treatment and if there’s a problem, we’ll take care of it.”

Gladstone reported from Sacramento, Frammolino from Los Angeles.