Faculty split over proposal on UC eligibility

UC faculty leaders are debating a proposal to change freshman admission rules in ways that would broaden the pool of potential applicants but also limit the guarantees of entrance for some high-achieving students.

Under the controversial proposal, the University of California would still take students from the top academic 12.5% of high school seniors but alter how it defines that group. For example, it would drop the requirement that applicants take two standardized subject tests in addition to the more generalized SAT test or ACT exam.

Its backers say the proposal would encourage more applicants, particularly those from lower-income families and high schools that don’t offer a full array of advanced classes, to gain at least consideration at UC’s nine undergraduate campuses.

But another element of the complicated proposal has triggered much concern. Under current policy, a large group of students with strong enough grades and test scores can achieve what is called UC eligibility. They may not get into their first- or even fourth-choice school but are guaranteed a spot at a campus with room, usually UC Riverside or UC Merced. The proposed change would, in part, end that guarantee.

Critics applaud the goal of attracting bright students who, under the current rules, might miss eligibility because of a technicality or poor counseling at an overcrowded high school. But they say it is wrong to chip away at the guarantee policies, suggesting that such a change might provoke an uproar among parents and lawmakers.

UC’s systemwide Academic Council of faculty leaders is scheduled to discuss the proposal Wednesday at a closed-door meeting in Oakland. Several prominent professors say they anticipate the proposal will face major revisions if it is to move forward to the UC Board of Regents for final approval; some suggest parts of it may already be dead on arrival.

The proposal comes from a faculty panel known as the Board of Admissions and Relations With Schools. Its chairman, Mark Rashid, a civil and environmental engineering professor at UC Davis, said the proposal would not eliminate students currently eligible for UC admission from receiving a review of their application.

He estimated that the proposed rule changes would result in about 15% more applications to UC every year.

“The students who are successful at negotiating the bureaucratic complexity [of applications] typically have access to high-quality counseling or doting parents who are watching over the process,” Rashid said. “But those who don’t can fail for reasons that have nothing to do with their academic achievement or their potential for achieving in college. We should aspire to be more fair than that.”

The Board of Admissions and Relations With Schools proposal would keep the so-called A-G sequence of 15 high school courses needed for entry into the UC system. It also would still guarantee admission to at least one UC campus for students ranking in the top academic 4% of their high schools. (About 20% of applicants get into UC this way.)

Taking the SAT, which tests critical reading, writing and math skills, or the ACT would still be necessary to gain UC admission. But the requirement to complete two supplemental SAT subject tests in such topics as U.S. history and chemistry would be dropped. Those supplemental tests contribute “little, if anything” to predicting success in college, according to a Board of Admissions and Relations With Schools report.

Failure to take two subject tests is the most common reason that otherwise eligible students with excellent grades and good SAT scores get disqualified from UC, officials said. This often happens to students at high schools with insufficient college counseling. Blacks and Latinos are disproportionately disqualified because of that requirement, officials said.

A sweeping change is proposed for the most common way applicants become eligible for UC.

Currently, students become eligible through a sliding scale that weighs grade-point average and standardized test scores. A minimum GPA of 3.0 is needed in required classes, although students receive an upward bump for some advanced placement and honors courses.

The proposal would eliminate the sliding scale of grades and test scores. Instead, students would become “entitled for review” if they have a minimum GPA of 2.8, without the current boost given for advanced placement and honors courses. Then, in a much more competitive process, individual campuses would further assess applicants by looking at their grades, SAT scores, the number of advanced placement classes taken, extracurricular activities and other factors.

Out-of-state applicants, who constitute about one-tenth of the estimated 35,000 freshmen, still would need higher grades and scores than California students.

The proposal’s authors insist it would uphold the mandate in the state’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education that UC take its students from the top 12.5% of high school seniors. Rashid said current policies are so complicated and daunting that they may measure how well students “jump through the hoops” rather than whether they are in that 12.5% category.

“UC should aspire to be more inclusive and open,” he said.

The proposal is eliciting sharply divided faculty reaction -- not a good sign in a system that often seeks consensus. For example, UCLA faculty leaders voted to support it, but their UC Berkeley counterparts voiced opposition.

Ending guaranteed admission based on the statewide scale of grades and scores “is a really big step with big consequences and possible political fallout,” said journalism professor William Drummond, who heads UC Berkeley’s academic senate. “It is a little bit too drastic for us to accept right now.”

He likened the proposal to a drastic overhaul of tax laws to achieve societal goals. “The moment you go there, you upset the equilibrium and you don’t know where it will settle down again.”

The UC San Diego faculty is sending to the Oakland meeting a summary of the campus debate in which a majority were opposed and some “cautiously supportive,” said James Posakony, a biological sciences professor who chairs that campus’ academic senate.

Public reaction would be very negative to dropping the statewide “guarantee” element, he said. Many California families feel “a real psychological benefit” in knowing that the guarantee is there if their children plan their high school courses, take the right tests and do well enough on all that, he said.

On the other hand, Posakony added, many professors concede that the current entrance formula may be too rigid and punishing for a teenager who lacks just one of the required items. Perhaps more exceptions can be made for them the way exceptions are now allowed for a small number of students who show strong athletic, musical or other talents that UC wants, he said.

UCLA education professor Jeannie Oakes, who is a member of the Board of Admissions and Relations With Schools and a supporter of the proposal, said she knows families feel reassured by the current guaranteed admission procedure even though the guarantee “is based on insufficient evidence.” The reform would provide a greater number of students a more comprehensive review of their applications, Oakes said.

UC’s top administrators say it is premature to take a position until the faculty finishes its review, according to UC spokesman Ricardo Vazquez. Even if the UC Board of Regents later approves some form of the changes, the new policies would not go into effect for several years, in order to give high school students plenty of advance notice, officials said.

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larry.gordon@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Key proposal changes

A UC faculty panel is proposing much-debated changes in the freshman application process. Highlights:

Standardized exams

Now: Students are required to take the SAT or ACT, plus two standardized SAT subject tests in such topics as U.S. history and chemistry.

Proposed: Students would no longer be required to take the subject exams.

Grade-point averages

Now: A minimum GPA of 3.0 in required classes, although students receive an upward bump for some advanced placement and honors courses.

Proposed: A minimum GPA of 2.8, but no bump would be given for advanced placement and honors courses.

Guarantees

Now: Students deemed eligible by their grades and test scores -- or by being in the top 4% of their high school class -- might be denied admission at the schools they selected but are offered spots at campuses with room.

Proposed: Students in the top 4% of their high school class would retain that guarantee. But others who have just the minimum required GPA would get only a full review of their application, not a guaranteed admission.

Source: University of California