Arguing that UCLA admissions policies are being manipulated to circumvent the state's ban on consideration of applicants' race, a professor there has resigned from a faculty committee that he says refused to allow him to study the matter.
Political science professor Tim Groseclose resigned Thursday from the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools, saying high-ranking university administrators and fellow committee members are engaged in a "coverup" to block illegal activity from being discovered.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, September 04, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 55 words Type of Material: Correction
UCLA admissions: An article in Saturday's California section about a professor's allegations that UCLA admissions officials are illegally considering applicants' race inaccurately described Proposition 209 as barring public universities from considering religion, among other factors. The 1996 voter-approved ballot measure forbids universities and other state entities to consider race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin.
"A growing body of evidence strongly suggests that UCLA is cheating on admissions," he wrote in an 89-page report posted on a UCLA website.
University officials called the report unsubstantiated and argued that Groseclose took a rise in the university's enrollment of black students as evidence that admissions officials were tampering with the process, without considering other factors such as increased outreach activities.
"He's taking an outcome and from that deducing a cause," said Tom Lifka, associate vice chancellor for student academic services.
Proposition 209, a 1996 voter initiative, bars California's public universities from considering race and other factors such as religion in the admissions process. In ensuing years, the number of black students at UCLA and many other UC campuses dwindled. By 2006, only 103 entering freshmen and 108 transfer students at UCLA were black, the lowest level in more than three decades.
Prompted by campus and community concerns about the lack of student diversity, UCLA decided in 2006 to move to a "holistic" application process, in which applicants' grades, test scores, extracurricular activities and other factors were no longer reviewed separately. Rather, achievements could be considered in the context of their personal experiences, Lifka said.
UCLA officials have said the new process is fairer to all applicants, and they have emphasized that admissions officials continue to abide by the restrictions imposed by Proposition 209.
Yet, since the admissions change was implemented, starting with the class that entered UCLA in fall 2007, the number of black students on campus has edged up. This fall, for example, 230 of 4,889 freshmen are African American, along with 100 transfer students. University officials attribute this increase to the holistic approach, as well as community outreach.
