When the University of California released early numbers of its newly admitted freshman class, the school chose to boast that more Californians were being admitted to the UC system.
The PR release headline read: “Admissions offers up, on track to enroll 10,000 more California students by next year.”
That’s why reporters take PR releases with a grain of salt.
Buried in the university’s own numbers was the real story.
Diversity on UC campuses is booming, and the headline to my story earlier in the week said it: “Students of Color Near 74 percent of U. of California’s Fall Freshman Class.”
The upshot is this: Chicano/Latino students made up 37.3 percent of the freshman class; Asian Americans, 29.1 percent; African Americans, 6.2 percent; American Indians, 0.6 percent; Pacific Islanders, 0.4 percent).
Whites made up just 23.7 percent.