State Budget Cuts Over 7500 eligible UC Students

SF Chronicle led with the story Rejected UC applicants snub plan about the 7500 students who were academically eligible, but not granted enrollment due to State Budget cuts. Under the new plan - which appears not to be working - the students were offered 2 years at a community college and 2 years at UC. Ward Connerly expresses the opinion that students need to get over the idea that community colleges are a kind of stigma. Is he kidding? The students who spend their junior year freaking out about going to the best college possible, and who manage to get accepted into UCLA or UC Berkeley, are clearly not going to go to a community college unless they're absolutely strapped for money. Many, like the student interviewed, are going to go out of state - to NYU or another top ranked school. This means the loss of a significant source of funding. Community colleges are already overloaded, and they are not going to be prepared to handle the influx.

An off-lead declares Black admissions drop 30 percent at UC Berkeley for the incoming class. A serious problem. But the solution is clearly NOT flying hundreds of minority students in for expense-paid campus visits (a horrible waste of money), but promoting the kind of structural change in k-12 schools which would render more african-american and latino students eligible in the first place.

An important aspect of this that neither article addresses, was brought up in The Daily Cal a few days ago. Study: UC Could Be Accepting Too Many Students wherein it states that UC appears to be accepting 2% MORE than its mandate already. But most importantly, only UC Regent John Moores seems to be paying attention to the elephant in the corner - fully 6%, thousands of students UC-wide - need not meet ANY academic requirements whatsoever, as long as their Extra-Curricular activities are in good shape:

"Although some regents praised the growing number of eligible students as a sign of better student performance, other regents were less enthusiastic, attributing the rise to loopholes in the admissions process. UC Regent John Moores criticized another program UC implemented to broaden UC’s admit pool. The university allows up to 6 percent of students to be admitted under special exceptions for personal talent even if baseline test score or GPA criteria is not met. Moores expressed dismay over lenient admission requirements during the yesterday’s meeting and chastised university leaders for not informing the board earlier."