Black enrollment as freshmen at UCLA

Re “A Startling Statistic at UCLA,” June 3

As times change, it appears that issues stay the same. Articles similar in tone to this one were common 35 years ago. Many remedies were discussed to increase minority enrollment. Affirmative action programs grew out of the hand-wringing that accompanied widespread discussion of social inequality. Yet here we are in 2006 with black enrollment apparently spiraling downward.

The answer to resolving this issue does not lie at the point of acceptance to a university at age 18. It is more likely to stem from earlier influences in life and agendas of parenting of children at younger ages. It would make sense to study the good side of this problem rather than what appears to be negative. In other words, why is it that Asians are markedly overrepresented in the freshman class? Maybe we could learn something from them.

WILLIAM JUREWITZ

Rancho Palos Verdes

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With so few African American students being admitted to UCLA, it seems that there is a grave crisis in leadership in the UCLA administration.

As an alum, I am outraged that only 96 of 4,852 incoming freshman are African American. I will continue to withhold any financial contributions to the school and to its alumni association until UCLA takes dramatic steps to serve underrepresented communities, particularly African Americans. I also will encourage my fellow alumni to do the same.

In the meantime, I urge UCLA to quadruple its efforts to increase African American enrollment.

SONJA M. SONNENBURG

San Francisco

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Jenny Wood, UCLA student body president, must be colorblind. How else can one explain her statement bemoaning the decline in the number of “students of color on our campus.”

Two-thirds of UCLA freshmen in 2005 were listed as nonwhite. Or maybe she didn’t notice the 41% plurality of Asian/Filipino freshmen. Just who gets to decide what color makes one a student of color today? Maybe her committee might want to take a look at that as well.

TOM MANNARINO

Lake Elsinore