#
Back 


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 31, 2003

Lavonne Luquis (510) 987-9194
Lavonne.Luquis@ucop.edu
Hanan Eisenman (510) 587-6194
Hanan.Eisenman@ucop.edu

NEWLY APPOINTED UC ELIGIBILITY AND ADMISSIONS STUDY GROUP
EXPECTED TO SUBMIT RECOMMENDATIONS IN MARCH

University of California President Robert C. Dynes has asked a 17-member Eligibility and Admissions Study Group to examine the undergraduate eligibility and admissions implementation issues that UC will face through 2010.

"From its inception, the mission of the University of California has been to enroll a student body that both encompasses the most academically qualified of California's high school graduates and that reflects the broad diversity of the state's population . . . Never before in the university's long history has this mission been more challenging or important to fulfill,"Dynes told the study group in a three-page charge letter.

In addition to UC facing unprecedented challenges brought on by budget cuts and a burgeoning student population, its admissions policies recently have been the subject of considerable analyses by UC Board of Regents' chairman John J. Moores.

Dynes' letter instructs the study group to keep in mind "the historic tradition of shared governance in which admissions is the prerogative of the faculty" and advise the Academic Senate and the Board of Regents in March on:

  • Eligibility policies and criteria and related issues related to the forthcoming California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) study.
  • Implementation of existing regental eligibility and admissions policies.
  • Methods to achieve greater efficiencies in UC’s admissions policies, including ways to communicate with the public more clearly about eligibility criteria, selection practices and admissions policies.

The study group was suggested to Dynes early last summer by Regent Joanne Corday Kozberg, who will co-chair the group with UC Senior Vice President of University Affairs Bruce B. Darling.

Dynes stressed that four principles must guide the work of the study group:

  • The University is a public institution with a unique mission as expressed by regents’ resolution RE-28, which states that, “The university shall seek out and enroll, on each of its campuses, a student body that demonstrates high academic achievement or exceptional personal talent, and that encompasses the broad diversity of backgrounds characteristic of California.”
  • The quality of the university must be maintained.
  • UC must continue to recognize that competition for admission to the nation’s finest universities has never been more intense and this causes great anxiety for parents and students. The university has an obligation to increase the transparency of the admissions process for each campus and to measure the academic impact of all facets of comprehensive review.
  • Comprehensive review will remain in effect, requiring every applicant to be evaluated in a broad range of academically relevant areas and in light of the educational opportunities available to them.

The other 15 members of the group are: regents Richard .C. Blum, John G. Davies, Odessa P. Johnson, Monica C. Lozano and John J. Moores; UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale, UC Santa Cruz Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood, UC Academic Council chair Lawrence Pitts, Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools chair Barbara A. Sawrey, student regent-designate Jodi L. Anderson, UC Student Association chair Matt Kaczmarek, Provost and Senior Vice President C. Judson King, UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul R. Gray, UC Irvine Vice Chancellor Manuel N. Gomez and former UC Associate President Patrick S. Hayashi.

Additional information on this topic can be found at:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/compreview/update.html


# # #

For general news and information about the University of California, please visit:
www.universityofcalifornia.edu

 

#

Send comments or questions about this web site to one of the webmasters