Diversity works at UC Riverside

When it was time for Woodrow Curry to decide where to go to university, he had several choices. An African American with good high school grades and test scores, he was accepted by UC Berkeley, among other schools.

But Berkeley is not where he ended up. Spurning one of the nation's premier public universities, he picked UC Riverside. Although Riverside is sometimes scorned as the lowliest of UC campuses, it offered Curry something that Berkeley did not: a place where he felt welcome.

"I liked the atmosphere," said Curry, 22, who plans to go to law school after he graduates next year. "I liked the black community on campus. I knew that UC Riverside had the most African American students of any UC and that they had a lot of programs geared toward helping African Americans succeed."

UC Riverside, sometimes viewed as a dumping ground for students who can't get into other UC campuses, has become the university of choice for many black and Latino students, whose numbers remain disproportionately low at other UC campuses.

While campuses like UCLA and UC Berkeley struggle to attract students from underrepresented minority groups, UC Riverside increasingly enjoys a reputation as one of the most ethnically diverse research universities in the nation.

"Maybe they should be looking at what UCR is doing right in attracting minorities," said Jayna Brown, an assistant professor of ethnic studies there.

Since 1996, state law has forbidden using race in college admissions. But at Riverside, administrators say they have worked hard over the last decade to reach out to eligible minority applicants, giving financial aid packages to promising students such as Curry, and creating race-based programs to assist minority students once they enroll.

UC Riverside Chancellor France A. Cordova, hailed as the first Latina chancellor in the UC system, notes that more than half the students say Riverside was their first or second choice.

"We are not UC rejects," says Samantha Wilson, 19, a white student who chose Riverside because of its diversity. "We are UC on the rise."

On the campus of 17,000 students, the university's success in achieving a diverse student body is obvious. At midday, the Commons is filled with young people of many ethnic backgrounds, some sitting in mixed groups, some with others of the same heritage.