A proposal by University of California President Richard Atkinson for "dual admissions" - which would create a fourth path for students to enter the UC - drew a warning from some UCLA faculty who cautioned that, if not thought out carefully, the plan could adversely affect the quality of students being admitted to UCLA.

During a Feb. 13 meeting of the Academic Senate's Legislative Assembly, faculty weighed pros and cons of the proposal, which would admit students who are not eligible for UC admission under current rules, but could be if they transfer successfully from a community college.

"We have the most successful, robust, vigorous, existing transfer program in the whole system, and that means that this has special implications for us," said Academic Senate Chair Stephen Yeazell. "The question is: Who loses here? Who gets displaced?"

Dual admissions would target high school students who are in the top 4%-12.5% of their graduating class. (Seniors in the top 4% of their graduating class are already guaranteed a place as UC freshmen.) These students would be admitted simultaneously to a community college and a UC campus. After completing their freshman and sophomore requirements at a community college, they would complete their upper-division studies at the UC campus to which they were admitted earlier.

The proposal would help UC meet enrollment goals set with the state: to increase the number of community college transfers to 15,300 by 2005; currently there are about 11,500. The plan would also increase the number of underrepresented minorities systemwide, officials maintain.

According to preliminary estimates, between 10,300-12,700 would be eligible for admission under Atkinson's plan, yielding between 1,500-3,500 additional transfer enrollments by 2005-'06, said UC San Francisco Professor Dorothy Perry, who chairs the UC Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools.

While UCLA faculty acknowledged the plan might yield some benefits, they also voiced serious concerns.

"There are a number of devilish details for UCLA that make this program something that is very attractive overall, but could be very awkward, even wasteful and possibly deleterious to UCLA," said Charles Buchanan, chair of the senate's Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools Committee.

UCLA is unique because it gets more transfer applications and accepts more transfer students than any other UC - about 25% of all transfer students systemwide go to UCLA, Buchanan noted. Moreover, UCLA turns away more UC-qualified transfer students than the total number of transfer applicants at some UC campuses. In addition, UCLA only admits transfers at the junior level where students must have an identified major and GPAs as high as 3.8 for some majors, Buchanan said. The campus admits no student who merely meets the minimum transfer requirement of a 2.4 GPA from a community college.

If UCLA were to accept a large number of students under dual admissions, the campus could displace other "traditional" enrollees. "We may have had to lower our standards, thereby bringing in a poorer group of students than we would have otherwise," Buchanan said.

On the other hand, he added, if UCLA accepts a very limited number of students, then the program, which could involve extensive counseling and financial aid, becomes very expensive to run. Currently, there is no funding in Gov. Gray Davis' budget plan to support the dual admissions program.

The Academic Senate will continue its discussion April 10.