UC Board Expected to OK Davis Plan to Admit Top 4%

Helping Gov. Gray Davis make good on a campaign promise, the UC Board of Regents today is expected to approve new admission rules that guarantee a seat for high school students who rank in the top 4% of their class.

The regents’ education policy subcommittee Thursday recommended the new rules, which are considered certain to pass the full board today.

Republican holdovers on the panel joined with Davis and his newly appointed regents to easily push through the plan that would make an additional 3,600 students eligible for admission to one of the UC campuses, but not necessarily the campus of their choice.

While of limited practical impact, the vote was heavy with symbolic import, both as an indication of Davis’ control of the board and of his desire to set a new tone on the controversial issue of university admissions.

“We owe it to the chief executive to work with him and advance his agenda,” said Regent Ward Connerly, who was initially suspicious that the 4% plan was an end-run around the affirmative action ban.

Although controversial in the past, the proposal would add only about 1,800 students to the 46,000 freshmen who decide to accept UC offers of admission each year. Officials plan a slight enrollment increase at some campuses to accommodate the additional students.

The new policy, which would take effect for students who will be freshmen in fall of 2001, would make no change in the rules for determining which campuses a student qualifies for, and therefore would have little, if any, effect on who gets into the most selective campuses--Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego. Test scores will remain a key criterion in that decision.

Davis campaigned on the 4% plan as a way to shore up minority admissions that have slipped since the end of affirmative action. But UC officials released new information showing that of the newly eligible students, whites would make up 56%, Latinos 20%, Asian Americans 11% and African Americans 5%. Now, Latinos are 12% of UC freshmen and blacks 3%.

Yet Davis stressed the importance of sending a welcoming hand to high school students who do not think attending the university is possible.

“This admissions program says, ‘Keep dreaming big dreams. Keep working hard. If you really excel, you will get a place at one of the eight UC campuses,’ ” Davis said. “And it is completely consistent with the will of the voters” who passed Proposition 209’s ban on racial preferences.

Such a change in policy probably would not have passed a year ago, when Republican Pete Wilson was governor. When the faculty brought the idea before the regents last year, it was roundly trounced by Wilson’s appointees. They feared that it not only would violate Proposition 209, but would bring in unqualified students and set them up for failure.

Longtime Regent Meredith J. Khachigian cast the lone vote in opposition to the plan, saying that it would raise “false hopes” among students ill-prepared for a rigorous university education. She also said that it sent the wrong message to schools that do not have college-prep programs that adequately prepare students to compete statewide for the 46,000 freshmen slots at the campuses.

But state Supt. of Schools Delaine Eastin joined the governor in arguing that the plan would inspire a culture of academic excellence and competition in those schools that historically send few, if any students, to the prestigious public universities.

Here is how the new admissions process would work:

At the end of the high school junior year, UC officials will help public schools compile grade-point averages for students taking college-prep courses and then rank the students accordingly.

Those in the top 4% of each of California’s 863 public high schools--about 10,000 students--will be sent letters informing them that they are eligible for UC admission, provided they send in an application, complete all required college-prep courses and take the SAT and SAT II tests. The university will extend the program to interested private schools.

Poor test scores will not make a student ineligible for admission. But good scores are one of the main criteria for who gets into the most competitive campuses, especially UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego.

Of the 10,000 students in the top 4%, about 6,400 would be eligible for UC admission without the policy change. Of the 3,600 who would not have been eligible before, officials expect that about half will enroll.

Davis emphasized Thursday that this approach opens the door to a new pool of students without displacing anyone who would otherwise get in.

Davis agreed that the change in policy will not alter the racial balance of the university, which has seen steep drops in black and Latino students admitted in the post-affirmative action era.

But, the governor pointed out, referring to the newly eligible students, that “about 800 or 900 of them will be people of color. There is no denying that 800 people of color will have a chance to come to the university that otherwise they would not have had.”

The issue of who gets admitted to UC has been a particularly hot topic since 1995, when the regents, led by then-Gov. Wilson, voted to ban affirmative action. The ban on racial preferences was extended statewide with the 1996 passage of Proposition 209.

Adopting a companion proposal, the regents decided to require all UC-bound students to take music, dance or other performing arts classes. The goal is to bring UC requirement in alignment with those of the California State University system.

But the regents, following Davis’ lead, shunned a faculty proposal to halve the extra grade points awarded to high school students who take Advanced Placement and honors courses.

The governor said he did not want to do anything that would diminish the incentives for high school students to challenge themselves by taking the tougher courses.

Under a program set up by UC officials more than a decade ago, students can now earn up to five points for an A in Advanced Placement or honors courses, resulting in grade-point averages that exceed 4.0. The idea is to reward students for risking a B in a tougher class, rather than going for the easy A in a routine class.

UC faculty were pushing the idea of shaving the extra point in half to make it fairer for students attending schools in rural and low-income areas that do not offer as many Advanced Placement and honors classes as at wealthier, suburban schools.