Despite the official adoption of a holistic review of applicants to blunt the impact of the 1996 affirmative action ban in admissions, University of California schools are still relying on traditional indicators of merit and Black student enrollment has continued to suffer as a result, according to a UCLA study released Tuesday.

Since the demise of affirmative action in 1996, nearly every university in the UC System has experienced steep declines in the admit rate of African Americans students, particularly at the Universities of California, Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego --the most selective schools in the system.

To address the lack of diversity in UC schools, UC system officials in 2002 designed an admissions policy known as comprehensive review in order "to improve the quality and fairness" of the UC admissions process by mandating that campuses consider a full range of students' accomplishments and their experiences and circumstances while prohibiting the consideration of race.

But according to a new report released by researchers at UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunch Center for African American Studies, titled “Gaming The System,” UC campuses still rely too heavily on traditional indicators of merit, such as a students’ GPA and SAT scores in the admissions process, diminishing the postsecondary opportunities for large numbers of underrepresented minorities.   

The report charges that the majority of the UC campuses do not make adequate efforts to account for the disadvantages, such as the lack of resources and advanced placement and honors classes, experienced by African Americans and other underrepresented minorities in K-12 education.

“We are proposing the elimination of the SAT test to make the process fairer and more equitable for minority students. It does not add to the predictive validity of a student’s academic success,” said Dr. Ana-Christina Ramon, research coordinator for UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunch Center for African American Studies.