Donahue declined to discuss his daughter's admission other than to say that he felt that it was unfair to single him out.
The existence of preferential treatment in admissions at UCLA and other UC campuses came to light in recent days with disclosures by The Times that several regents who voted last year to eliminate affirmative action for minorities and women in admissions had privately tried to use their influence to get relatives, friends and children of business partners into the school, one of the most popular among the nine UC campuses.
Since then, state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) has said that he will hold investigatory hearings into the matter soon, and UC President Richard Atkinson has begun an internal review to determine the extent of such favoritism.
This week, a Brentwood couple filed suit seeking an injunction to stop the university from granting any more private admissions preferences such as those outlined by The Times. The same couple filed suit against UCLA last year when their daughter was denied admission to the Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School, where they accused officials of practicing "affirmative action" for the rich and famous by reserving slots for the children of potential donors. The facility is a laboratory school operated on the Westwood campus by the School of Education.
Martin Nemko, an Oakland-based expert in admissions and author of the book "How to Get an Ivy League Education at a State University," said Wednesday that he does not believe that favoritism in admissions at public institutions such as UCLA is common.
"I don't think it's pervasive," he said. "I think it's very much the exception."
But Young, for one, said he doesn't know of a single private or public university where donors, major supporters and influential politicians are not given special treatment when they ask for help with admissions.
"How do you stop [the phone calls]?" Young asked, referring to calls from influential elected officials such as an Assembly speaker, governor or a major donor.
"No one from the lower-middle-class background I came from would ever have thought of picking up the telephone and calling the chancellor of UCLA," Young said. "They wouldn't now. I don't know that I like that about society as a general kind of philosophical issue, but it is a fact.
