Passage of 4 percent plan awaits approval by regents
Tuesday, March 2, 1999
Passage of 4 percent plan awaits approval by regents
ADMISSION: Board hopes proposal will raise minority representation in UCs; others doubt much will change
By Dennis Lim
Daily Bruin Contributor
At 15 years old, Federico Campo does not fully understand all the technicalities behind college admissions, but he does know what he likes, and he likes the 4 percent plan.
"It sounds like a fair plan," said Campo, a freshman at Dos Pueblos High School in Santa Barbara. "It will certainly give me and others an incentive to try harder in school." Campo's high school sends, on average, 10 people to UCLA every year.
The 4 percent plan, which guarantees University of California eligibility to students who graduate in the top 4 percent of their high school, based on GPA, could drastically change the number of Dos Pueblos students sent to UC schools and possibly Campo's future.
If voted in at the UC Regent's March 18 San Francisco meeting, the plan will go into effect in 2001, affecting current high school sophomores.
After the passage of Proposition 209, the representation of minority students drastically fell at schools such as UC Berkeley and UCLA.
The Master Plan of Education, the overriding set of laws UC officials must follow when making policies, stipulates that UC schools must admit the top 12.5 percent of students in California high schools.
After Proposition 209 the percentage of California high school students receiving admission fell to 11.1 percent, according to a report released by UC Provost Judd King and Assistant Vice President of Planning and Analysis Sandra Smith.
These diminishing numbers caused many UC officials to rethink their policies on "race-blind" admissions, and out of the brainstorm came the 4 percent plan.
The 4 percent plan would add about another 1.5 percent of California high school students, returning UC schools to the required 12.5 percent. Out of that 1.5 percent would also come minority students who succeed in the high school environment, but who do not perform as well on standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT.
"Prop. 209 forced us to focus on issues of diversity and representation," said UC President Richard Atkinson. "So as a result a lot of the thinking around this plan focused on those issues."
Though this plan is limited in that immediate effects will have little impact on the admission of minority students, Atkinson and other regents said they believe the plan will increase the number of minority students in UC schools over time.
"It will increase minority admissions in the next three to four years because the plan will affect the students from rural, low-income, inner-city schools where you find many of the challenged minority students," Atkinson said.
But not all students Campo's age think the same way. There are those who say the 4 percent plan, or any other plan the regents develop, will do little to alter minority admissions.
"I don't think it's enough," said Kristopher Dulay, a sophomore at Berkeley High School and a member of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary. "I don't think anything will ever take the place of affirmative action for helping minorities out."
At the February meeting of the UC Board of Regents, Gov. Gray Davis conceded that Dulay has a point, but insisted the 4 percent plan does not necessarily deal with race, but issues of school resources.
"Through this plan what we're saying to these kids who go to schools that don't offer AP courses, honors classes or the most senior teachers is that you will be rewarded if you succeed," Davis said.
Other regents agreed with Dulay, but they pointed out that the plan will give all top performing high school students an equal opportunity at admission to a UC school.
"I want to make this difference between eligibility and admission," said Regent Meredith Khachigian.
"If you're a high school senior in the top 4 percent of your high school you will be eligible to get into a UC, but not necessarily the one you want," she said.
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