Regents call for clarity
BY CYNTHIA LEE
UCLA Today Staff
University of California regents urged a recently formed UC study
group to clarify eligibility and admissions issues to clear up mounting
confusion in the public’s mind about how students are admitted.
“Whatever report comes out has to be absolutely clear,”
said California Lt. Gov. and UC Regent Cruz Bustamante at a regents’
meeting Nov. 20 at Covel Commons. “You must take the complexity
and boil it down to very simple terms so that there is no more confusion
about the fact that we are maintaining the highest academic standards.”
Debate over who gets in was ratcheted up recently in the media
after the release of a draft report authored by Chairman of the
Board of Regents John Moores on the number of students admitted
to UC Berkeley with SAT I scores under 1000 and the number denied
admission with scores over 1400. The Moores report, UC Berkeley
officials have said, fails to accurately describe the campus’
admissions process and outcomes.
UC President Robert C. Dynes and several regents agreed that transparency
with regard to admissions is absolutely necessary.
“UC must continue to recognize that competition for admission
to the nation’s finest universities has never been more intense,
and that causes a great deal of anxiety for parents and students,”
Dynes said. “The university has an obligation to clarify to
students and their parents how the admissions process works for
each campus.”
The president, however, stressed that the study group won’t
focus on comprehensive review, which will remain UC’s admissions
policy. “This is the right policy for selective universities
in America today,” Dynes emphasized.
Among the topics the study group will address, he said, are eligibility
criteria and issues that will come up when the California Postsecondary
Education Commission (CPEC) releases an upcoming report on UC’s
eligibility pool, set by the Master Plan at the top 12.5% of the
state’s graduates. UC determines eligibility based entirely
on traditional quantitative criteria: grades in required courses,
SAT II scores and ACT or SAT I scores.
“If we have been successful at all in our outreach efforts,
I would expect that number will be higher than 12.5%,” Dynes
said. So one question the study group will answer is: If the CPEC
study finds UC over its 12.5% target, how will the system proceed?
The study group, which includes Chancellor Albert Carnesale and
Student-Regent-Designate Jodi L. Anderson of UCLA, is slated to
present its report to the regents in March. For details, go to www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/compreview/update.html.
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