UCLA’s New Admissions Policy Could Improve Black Student Enrollment
By Ibram Rogers

Efforts by several Black community groups and higher education researchers to overhaul University of California, Los Angeles’ admissions policy appear to be paying off.

In response, UCLA officials are moving to adopt a more “holistic” admissions policy, in which a student’s achievements are measured alongside his or her personal experiences. Last month, two faculty committees approved the reforms, modeled after UC-Berkeley’s admissions policy. The vote of the final committee is pending.

UCLA would like these changes to go into effect for those applying in November for admission next fall, says Dr. Janina Montero, the university’s vice chancellor for student affairs. To meet that goal, the university is working to convene the members of the final faculty committee so they can issue the approval in due time, she says.

“We have one to go. I’m hopeful that it will be approved,” Montero says. “We need to move at a reasonable pace here and everybody understands that.”

Those who pressured UCLA to change its admissions policy include a coalition of several Black community groups in Los Angeles. The coalition was formed in June after it was announced that UCLA would be admitting its smallest Black freshman class in more than 30 years.

The coalition, called The Alliance for Equal Opportunity in Education, is reacting to UCLA’s new approach with guarded optimism, says Chris Strudwick-Turner, vice president of the Urban League of Los Angeles. The 17-member coalition includes the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Nation of Islam and the UCLA Black Alumni Association, among others.

“Nothing has been decided yet,” says Strudwick-Turner. “So the alliance is here as a watchdog group to make sure that what they say they are going to do, they actually do, as well as take some steps beyond that.”
Ninety-six students were expected to enroll at UCLA this fall — the lowest total of Black incoming freshmen since 1973 and a 20 percent drop from the 125 Black freshmen enrolled in 2005. The Black students make up a mere 2 percent of the overall freshmen class. Twenty of those 96 students are athletes.