By Khalida Sarwari
Asian-American leaders gathered today at Chinese for Affirmative Action headquarters in San Francisco to call on the University of California Board of Regents to delay action on a new proposal to alter freshman admission eligibility.
The leaders, including UC Berkeley professor emeritus L. Ling-Chi Wang, CAA executive director Vincent Pan and San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting, argued that if approved, the proposal would cause the most significant structural changes to UC freshman admission policies since the establishment of California’s Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960.
Changes under the plan would include a reduction in statewide eligibility from 12.5 percent to 9 percent of California high school graduates. However, local eligibility, or the percentage of students accepted from each high school in the state, would increase from 4 percent to 9
percent.
The selection of the remainder of the eligibility pool would be based on campus review, and the SAT II achievement test would no longer be required as part of the admission process.
The leaders argued that the proposal, scheduled for review by the regents on Wednesday, should not be considered until it is thoroughly researched and subjected to public and legislative examination. Moreover, they believe the new proposal is especially disadvantageous to Asian American applicants.
Henry Der, former chairman of the California Postsecondary Education Commission, claimed that in-depth studies on the impact of the proposed changes have not been conducted but that early indications show the changes would not significantly increase the enrollment of underrepresented minorities and that furthermore, the proposal would negatively impact Asian American applicants.
That sentiment was echoed by Ting, a graduate of UC Berkeley, who said the proposal would hurt diversity on UC campuses.
Calling the new proposal “very troubling” and the regents’ efforts to expand the enrollment pool “fraudulent,” Der said the study shows that the percentage of Hispanic and Asian American applicants will decrease.
“It is not fair or just to change the rules of the game at this point,” Der said.
Der claimed that the elimination of the SAT II is the most problematic aspect of the proposal because it gives students the wrong signal.
“We need to signal that what they have studied is important,” Der said.
Wang said that along with grade point averages, the SAT II is the best predictor of college-level performance.
The regents will vote on the proposal at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at UCSF Mission Bay Community Center, located at 1675 Owens St., San Francisco.