UC Admits More APAs, Fewer Other Minorities

Freshman Admissions

BY BERT ELJERA

The number of non-Asian minorities offered freshman seats under University of California's "race-blind" admissions policy declined this year as the number of Asian Americans increased slightly.

Altogether, 91,990 applicants were offered admission to the eight undergraduate University of California (UC) campuses for this fall, including 30,524 self-identified Asian Americans--a gain of just over 2 percent from the 29,861 admitted last year. Whites made up the largest racial category with 31,841 applicants admitted, but unlike Asian Americans, they are underrepresented with respect to their demographic population. All non-Asian minorities together make up just under a third of the successful applicants.

Though many more applicants--up to twice as many at some campuses--declined to state their ethnicity, administrators expressed dismay over the indisputable drop in the numbers of African American, Chicano, Latino and American Indians admitted.

Under California's Proposition 209, passed by voters last year, public universities cannot consider ethnicity in admissions, employment or contracting. However, even before the law passed, UC had abolished its affirmative action programs.

"I am disappointed that our entering class will not better represent the impressive diversity that distinguishes this state," said UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl. "We know from our own experience that a great many of the underrepresented minority students who were not offered admission would have succeeded here and would have contributed to the excellence of this university."

UC Berkeley registered one of the sharpest declines in minority admissions--a 54.7 percent drop compared to a year ago. Non-Asian minorities comprised 10.4 percent of the 8,034 applicants admitted this fall.

The most substantial drop was among African Americans, whose number declined from 562 admitted last year to 191 this year. Admissions of Chicanos (people of Mexican descent) dropped from 1,045 last year to 434 this year. Among other Latinos, 166 were admitted this year, down from 221 last year.

Among American Indians, 27 were admitted for fall 1998, compared to 69 the year before, a 60 percent decrease.

Many rejected applicants will likely attend other schools, Berdahl said. "I believe this will be a loss to Berkeley, and if they leave the state, for the future leadership of California," he said.

At Berkeley, 2,998 Asian Americans were admitted out of 10,297 applicants. Last year, 2,925 were accepted out of 10,330 applicants. Asian Americans comprise 37.1 percent of those admitted, followed by whites at 34.6 percent. (Among California's population as a whole, Asian Americans represent about 10 percent, whites 56 percent. Latinos and blacks make up about 35 percent of the population.)

At UCLA, 11,479 self-identifying Asian Americans applied, and 4,187 of them were accepted. Last year, 11,473 applied, and 4,154 were admitted.

There were similar substantial losses among blacks, Latinos and other minorities, with American Indians registering the biggest decline. This year, 46 of 194 were admitted; last year, 81 of 157 were offered admission.

At UC Irvine, Asian American admissions dipped by more than 2 percent; but those of Filipino Americans, which the school places in a separate category than other Asian Americans, increased by 5 percent. A total of 4,490 Asian Americans were accepted while 819 Filipino Americans were offered admission. Last year, the numbers were 4,611 and 778 for Asian Americans and Filipino Americans, respectively.

At UC Santa Cruz, Asian American admissions rose 7 percent, from 2,021 to 2,169, and Filipino American admissions increased from 297 to 347--an increase of about 17 percent.

At UC Davis, a total of 4,130 Asian Americans, including Filipino Americans, were admitted, compared with 3,813 in fall of 1997.

UC San Diego reported similar gains among Asian Americans and Filipino Americans, and a significant increase for other minorities, including African Americans, whose numbers rose by 15.2 percent. Of the 13,041 accepted freshman applicants, 472 are Filipino American and 3,928 are other Asian Americans.

UC Riverside admitted more students in all ethnic groups, including Asian Americans. Their numbers jumped from 3,641 to 4,113.

"This is very positive in term's of the university's commitment to enroll a diverse student body," said Jom Sandoval, assistant vice chancellor and registrar.

At UC Santa Barbara, Asian American/Pacific Islander admissions declined from 3,075 to 2,871. Numbers fell for all ethnic groups because of the university's goal of admitting at most 3,700 applicants this fall--1,000 fewer than last fall.

"Because of rising acceptance rates over the past four years, we have invited fewer applicants this year in order to meet our target," said Admissions Director Joan Magruder. "Thus, the actual numbers of those we asked to enroll has decreased."

Still, a sizable fraction of those accepted to any UC campus decline to enroll. Even at Berkeley, which has seen a surge in acceptances in recent years, only 43 percent of successful applicants are expected to enroll, and civil rights activists worry that the enrollment rates may be lower among some underrepresented groups.

Henry Der, deputy superintendent of external affairs of the California Department of Education and an opponent of Proposition 209, said that less diversity at UC would work against Asian American students in the long term.

"Asian Americans will look at the numbers and say, 'Gee, we're growing," Der said. "But we want to get our children the kind of diverse exposure they need to have if they want to be leaders of California and the nation."

He said the university experience should provide students with many perspectives. "I don't think it hurts Asian kids to have interaction with Hispanics in the classroom and elsewhere," he said. "In fact, there is an imperative for this interaction to occur."

Korean American attorney Angela Oh, a member of President Clinton's race panel, warned that 209 may spell trouble for Asian Americans, the only group demographically overrepresented in this year's figures.

"I think we are going to pay a huge price for being the only racial classification that benefited from Proposition 209. Even whites lost out on Prop. 209. Asians were the only group consistently across all University of California campuses that reported in their figures to have benefited from Prop. 209, and that is going to come back and haunt us in many different ways," she said.

"I think kids are going to see and encounter increased levels of violence and resentment on campus. And it's going to come back to haunt us politically, because there is no way Asians will be permitted to become the majority."

Michael Chang, mayor of Cupertino and chair of the Asian American studies program at De Anza College, said Asian Americans should look at the big picture on affirmative action.

"Going to college is close to the hearts of Asian Americans," he said. "It's easy to think it's great if there is an increasing opportunity, but people should also look at the broader perspective. Affirmative action is intended to right historical wrongs that continue to this day."

He said it's wrong to support affirmative action only if it benefits Asian Americans. "We have to be consistent," he said.

But Garden Grove, Calif., City Councilman Ho Chung, a Republican and supporter of Proposition 209, said the growing number of Asian Americans indicate that those willing to work hard can get into good universities.

"I'm sorry for the other minorities," said Chung. "But the law is the law, and maybe this should provide a motivation for everyone to meet the standards, whether you're in the majority or minority."

Pablo Wong, formerly Gov. Pete Wilson's deputy director for community relations, said merit--in the form of academic achievement and higher test scores--is now becoming more of a factor. "The message we're getting is we need a lot of work to improve our educational system so that people of all races are able to qualify to enter the best schools," Wong said.

In fact, grade-point averages (GPA) and SAT scores for successful applicants are higher than ever, campus officials say. At UCLA, for instance, the average GPA was 4.19 and the average combined SAT score was 1,324, compared with last year's 4.14 GPA and 1,302 total SAT score. And at Berkeley, half of the applicants had 4.0 or higher GPAs, but only one in four was offered admission.

Jennifer Ho, a senior at Lowell High School, said intense competition led to rejections from Berkeley and UCLA (she was accepted at San Diego). Although she does not feel that identifying herself as Asian American hurt her chances, many applicants apparently felt otherwise: More than ever before declined to state their ethnicity, making it harder to get accurate ethnic breakdowns.

At UC Irvine, for instance, 1,423 students did not state their ethnicity--three times as many as the 442 who declined to state last year.

"This is a significant number, and we have no way of knowing how the statistics on ethnicity would change if more students had answered this question," said Manuel Gomez, UC Irvine's vice chancellor of student services.

At UCLA, the number of applicants who chose not to state their race nearly tripled, from 1,326 in 1997 to 4,264 this year. This year, UCLA admitted 1,463 from this category, compared with 569 in fall 1997.

Rae Lee Siporin, director of undergraduate admissions and relations with schools, said most of those who have chosen not to declare their race in years past have been whites or Asian Americans.

At UC Berkeley, 4,104 students declined to state their ethnicity, compared with 1,366 last year, school officials said.

The lack of data can make it harder not only to track applicants, but to ensure outreach to successful ones, especially blacks and Latinos.

UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale has urged UCLA students, faculty, alumni and friends to help recruit successful applicants, especially underrepresented minorities.

"We would want them [students] to know the benefit from the tradition of excellence and diversity that has distinguished UCLA as one of America's finest universities," Carnesale said.

Berdahl, the UC Berkeley chancellor, said he will visit high schools across the state and urge successful applicants, especially underrepresented minorities, to enroll. He vowed, "I will personally phone as many of these students as I can."

Asianweek contributor Sam Chu Lin assisted in this article.

©1998 AsianWeek. The information you receive on-line from AsianWeek is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright protected material.