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FUHSD weighs effect of UC admissions plan

Proposal may reduce number of Fremont students going to UC

By Justin Berton

Fewer students from the Fremont Union High School District will attend University of California institutions if legislators implement a new admission policy in an attempt to sidestep the loss of affirmative action.

The proposed admissions policy--which supporters are working to make a state constitutional amendment--would accept the top 12.5 percent of students from each senior high school class in the state.

The UC Regents are working toward their own alternative admissions policy, by which students in the top 4 percent of senior classes would be admitted, UC President Richard Atkinson announced two weeks ago. Admissions boards would review the remaining applications on a case-by-case basis to fill the remaining spaces.

The regents' proposal would not have as drastic an effect on the district as the legislature's.

"I don't think the 4 percent would particularly harm us," associate superintendent Maribeth Smith said, "but [the 12.5 percent policy] would cut out a lot of our students."

Currently, the UC system guarantees slots to students who rank in the top 12.5 percent statewide, a ranking that many Fremont Union district students achieve easily. More than 20 percent of students in the Fremont district who went to college attended UC in 1995-96, according to a report compiled by the California Department of Education.

Yet if only 12.5 percent from each high school could attend a UC campus, some students stand to lose.

Smith said that at a school like Monta Vista, where 115 students were admitted to UC in 1995-96, only 50 would be eligible under the new plan.

At Homestead about 20 students who could currently be admitted to a UC would be ineligible, according to the report.

The 12.5 percent idea was introduced by state Sen. Teresa Hughes last year to keep the UC system well-rounded in terms of race, ethnicity, gender and wealth. Legislators will vote on the issue in April.

Terry Lightfoot, spokesperson for the regents, said a new admissions policy would ensure diversity on UC campuses.

"The president hopes to achieve a way to provide a UC education for a broad range of students throughout the state," Lightfoot added.

In 1995, UC regents voted to stop using race-based preferences in admission standards. One year later, California voters approved Proposition 209, a statewide ban on affirmative action policies. Since then, legislators and educators dissatisfied with the ban have been attempting to create new admission standards that would sidestep the law.

Lightfoot said all students will still be required to meet the basic requirements of a 3.3 grade-point average and completion of college-prep classes.

Smith says Monta Vista stopped ranking students a few years ago. Ranking students at a school loaded with high achievers tends to overlook an accomplished student, she said.

"You can have a 3.5 at Monta Vista and still be at the bottom of the class," Smith said.

Lightfoot cautioned that the top 12.5 percent from each high school will still be required to meet the UC criteria.

"This kind of proposal encourages the idea that if you can work hard in [high school], you can go to a UC no matter where you come from."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 25, 1998.
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