Post-Affirmative Action, It’s a New Era for Grads

Thousand Oaks High School senior Maria Carmona isn’t exactly complaining about the end of racial preferences in admissions to University of California campuses.

Headed to UC Santa Barbara this fall, the better-than-B-average student is happy to know she got into college based on her academic performance and four years of hard work.

Still, she can’t help but wonder how life might have been different if offered the chance to attend the two other universities to which she applied, UCLA and UC San Diego.

“It would have been nice to have more options,� said the 18-year-old Mexican immigrant, the first in her family to pursue a higher degree in this country.

“But I don’t know if it would have made much difference,� she said. “And besides, I figured if you’re going to get into a college it should be because you can handle it, not because of your race.�

It’s impossible to know whether Maria would have gotten into either of the other schools even under the old rules, before UC officials abolished affirmative action and voters seconded the move with passage of a statewide initiative ending racial preferences in government institutions.

In the first year after the state’s premier public university system switched to the color-blind system, UC campuses reported a marked decrease in the number of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans admitted this fall.

The declines were particularly pronounced at the most competitive campuses, UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego.

But on high school campuses across Ventura County, it is hard to gauge exactly what the post-affirmative action era has meant to this year’s crop of college-bound seniors, many of whom say they didn’t give the policy change much thought when deciding where to apply.

Admissions officers for several UC campuses say there is no question that there are students at most Ventura County high schools shut out of the university system by the new guidelines.

The trouble, guidance counselors say, is that college admissions have always been an inexact science, influenced by grade-point averages and test scores and a variety of other criteria such as involvement in sports and other extracurricular activities.

Moreover, educators say it is possible that Ventura County seniors could feel the squeeze less than those in other areas, noting that the county’s relative affluence and top-caliber schools are more likely to turn out college-eligible graduates of all races and ethnic backgrounds.

So while some students certainly were passed over this year, counselors and educators say the most visible effect could simply be fewer choices for UC-bound seniors.

“It’s very difficult to tell on the home front exactly how it’s all playing out,� said Dennis Swindall, a guidance counselor at Ventura High School where at least a dozen students are headed to UC campuses.

“I think it’s probably going to be more difficult for ethnically underrepresented kids to get into the University of California system,� he said. “But at the high school level, they’re not that savvy. They’re just innocent enough to go ahead and apply anyway.�

Added Thousand Oaks High School counselor Jack Loritz, “It’s impossible to know what the effect has been. I’m sure there were kids who were hurt by it, but I don’t know how you would ever figure out who they are.�

UCSB Takes Diversity Into Its Own Hands

In a broader sense, UC officials know exactly who those students are.

Even with a record number of high school seniors applying to the UC system, the number of blacks planning to enroll at UC campuses dropped by 24% and the number of Latinos by 5% as officials assembled the first undergraduate class in decades without any preference for race or ethnicity.

The sharpest decline was at UC Berkeley, where only 98 African Americans and 264 Latinos will join 3,660 other students who will register as freshmen this fall. That is a 62% drop from the number of blacks who enrolled last September, and a 47% drop in Latinos.

UCLA also showed significant declines, with only 131 African Americans and 458 Latinos agreeing to attend in the fall. That is a 40% drop for blacks and a 24% drop for Latinos.

Those losses were offset somewhat by gains at other campuses, especially UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz, which reported double-digit increases in the number of blacks and Latinos enrolled for the fall.

“The results are very different depending on which campus you focus on,� UC Berkeley admissions director Bob Laird told a gathering of high school counselors and college recruiters last week at Cal Lutheran University.

“This is clearly part of the struggle in the United States to come to terms with racial and ethnic diversity,� he said. “And there is at least a positive story to build on as we go into the next admissions cycle.�

UC Santa Barbara is part of that story.

A record 23,683 high school seniors applied for fall admission to the campus, a 14% increase over 1997. Of those, admission was offered to 13,800 students, with about 3,700 expected to accept.

About 9,400 freshmen were admitted using strict academic criteria such as grades and test scores. But with race and ethnicity no longer a factor in offering admission, UC Santa Barbara officials adopted a new strategy to help diversify their campus.

Officials combed about 10,000 files, reading personal essays and reviewing involvement in activities outside the classroom. Using that method, officials were able to offer admission to another 4,400 freshmen, many of whom may have not gotten in otherwise.

As a result, the number of underrepresented minorities who agreed to enroll this fall is virtually identical to the number enrolled in 1997. This fall’s numbers include 44 Native Americans, 109 African Americans and 573 Latinos.

“Diversity was a major challenge for us this year,� said William Villa, director of undergraduate admissions for UCSB.

“Given the new constraints, what we’re trying to do is be fair in a broad, comprehensive new way,� he said. “That said, this will be the most academically talented class we have ever admitted into UCSB.�

A New Plan of Action for Minority Students

Channel Islands High School senior Pamela Lastrico will be part of that class.

Born and raised in Oxnard, the 17-year-old honor student applied to Santa Barbara, UC San Diego and Chapman University, a private college in Orange County.

Only San Diego turned her down, a rejection she can’t quite understand given a grade-point average beyond 4.0 and her participation on several academic teams such as mock trial.

Still, she said it probably worked out for the best. She has an older sister at UC Santa Barbara and she didn’t want to go too far from home.

“When I was picking schools, I was mainly picking them so they would go along with my major,� said Pamela, who is considering becoming a schoolteacher. “I wasn’t really thinking about affirmative action.�

Other seniors, however, were.

Ventura High School senior Dwight Parry said he considered adding to his application the fact that he had some Native American blood, hoping that it might make him eligible for extra grants and scholarships.

But he ultimately decided against it, wanting to get into college on the strength of his 4.0 grade-point average and his interest in music.

“I wasn’t going to let it stop me, one way or the other, from applying to the places I wanted to go,� said the 17-year-old Ventura native, who ended up earning several scholarships and grants to help pay his way at UC Irvine.

For many students, the choice of where to go to college comes down to a question of money rather than where they have been accepted.

Thousand Oaks High School senior Griselda Ramirez is headed to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the fall, choosing it over two other colleges largely because of the financial aid package she was offered.

Griselda said she worried she wouldn’t get into a good school when she first learned of efforts to dismantle affirmative action programs.

And although that didn’t happen, she said she worries about what that move might mean for future graduates, especially those who haven’t had the same educational opportunities she has.

“One of the reasons my dad moved us here was for the better schools and the better opportunities for his daughters,� said Griselda, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and the first in her family to be born in the United States.

“I have had advantages that many other kids haven’t had,� she said. “I’ve been able to go to good schools and not be influenced by gangs and drugs. I think affirmative action is for those people who don’t have those advantages, who need extra help getting to the next level.�