UCLA sets numbers records

A record number of students have said they will enroll in the fall as UCLA freshmen, including slight increases in the number of African Americans and Latinos, campus officials reported Monday.

UCLA this year received the most freshman applications -- 55,397 -- of any university in the nation. Of the 12,579 offered admission, 4,889 have indicated intentions to attend the Westwood campus. Of those, 37.1% identified themselves as Asian American, 33.8% as white, 16.5% as Latino and 4.9% as black. More than 7% declined to identify themselves racially or said they were “other.”

The rise in African American freshmen, up from 4.7% last year, marked the second annual gain after the black community protested declines to only 103 black freshmen, or 2.2% of the class, two years ago. Among changes since then, alumni success in raising private scholarship funds for black students helped boost their enrollment numbers to 233 for the upcoming fall term. State law forbids the use of public money for ethnically targeted financial aid.

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-- Larry Gordon