Black Leaders in Los Angeles Call for UCLA to Change Its Admissions Procedures

African-American leaders in the city of Los Angeles are calling for a reform in admissions procedures at the University of California at Los Angeles. The Alliance for Equal Opportunity in Education was formed after it was announced that there will only be 96 black freshmen in this fall’s entering class. Blacks will be just 2 percent of all first-year students.

UCLA is prohibited by state law from using race as a factor in its admissions procedures. But leaders of the alliance want the university to increase outreach and recruitment among blacks and to adopt a more holistic approach to admissions where a student’s entire life experience is factored into the decision process.

The University of California at Berkeley’s “comprehensive review” procedures give weight to a student’s overcoming adversity or being the first in his or her family to attend college.

Berkeley has not done much better than UCLA. Only 3 percent of the incoming class at Berkeley is black.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.