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Admission to UC Gets Tougher; Regents Raise Minimum GPA
by Guy Ashley, September 24, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO: In the face of critics who believe the University of California may be on the verge of shutting out more minority students, UC regents Thursday made undergraduate admission a little bit tougher.

As jeering students looked on, the board of regents voted to increase the minimum high school grade point average required for freshmen from 2.8 to 3.0. The new standard will take effect with students entering UC in fall 2007.

Regents approved the plan by a 14-6 vote, responding to a recommendation by its faculty and a study by the California Postsecondary Education Commission that found 14.4 percent of California public high school graduates achieved UC eligibility in 2003, up from 11.1 percent in 1996. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, UC is supposed to pull its students from the top 12.5 percent of graduates.

The study marked the first time in 25 years the university has exceeded that target.

Before the vote, students from UC campuses statewide urged regents to reject the plan, saying it was based on flawed research and would cripple campus diversity.

After, students chanted: "Education is a right, not just for the rich and white."

Thursday's action marks the second but more controversial part of a two-stage plan to bolster UC eligibility requirements over the next three years.

Taken together, the plan is expected to shut out about 5,650 students per year who would be eligible under current standards. But UC calculations show that Latino and black students, whose ranks already fall well below their makeup in the state population, will be hit harder than Asian and white peers.

"The quality of education is nothing without access," said Jenn Pae, who missed the first day of classes at UC San Diego to attend.

The vote came after a discussion in which critics, including Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, urged a delay until further studies could be done to see if the 14.4 percent figure recorded last year was an historical blip or a trend demanding response.

"The one-year increase in students eligible for UC from 12.5 percent to 14.4 percent should be heralded and praised, not considered a problem," Bustamante said.

But proponents said they worried a growing pool of eligible students could overwhelm campuses at a time when the UC system teeters on precarious footing amid the state budget mess. Rising eligibility rates, they said, could make a mockery of the master plan's pledge to find a place in the UC system for all eligible students who want one.

"We do need to increase our eligibility requirements to stay consistent with state policy, but we have tried to do so in a way that does not make any precipitous changes for our applicants," said M.R.C. Greenwood, senior vice president for academic affairs and UC provost.

UC officials noted that the first, and less controversial, phase of the plan will have a greater effect on eligibility.

Adopted by the board in July, the change involves the way GPAs are calculated and at what point students in the top 4 percent of their high school classes are declared automatically eligible. That takes effect in fall 2005.

Raising the minimum GPA from about a B- to a B was expected to affect only about 750 students, according to UC. But the controversy over grades proved much more difficult for the board, causing regents to put off the plan's second phase for two months, until Thursday's meeting.

Because GPA calculations are based on UC-required "a-g" courses taken in the sophomore and junior high school years, the regents' action gives high school sophomores a clear sense of what is expected if they are to achieve UC eligibility when they enter college in 2007. The minimum required GPA will remain at 2.8 until then.

But regents warned that students should view the 2.8 and 3.0 levels purely as a minimum. In reality, about 75 percent of UC-eligible applicants have GPAs of 3.5 or more, and admission to most UC campuses generally requires a high school GPA much higher than 3.0.

Achieving UC eligibility historically has guaranteed a student a place somewhere in the UC system, though not necessarily at the campus of choice.

A faculty panel recommended raising the minimum GPA, instead of other methods to tighten admission, such as raising required scores on entrance exams, based on statistics that show high school grades are a stronger predictor of student college performance.

Of all options to bolster admissions requirements, officials said, raising the GPA will have the least negative effect on students from underrepresented racial groups, schools and geographic areas.

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