VI.  Implications for the University

The purpose of this chapter is to examine what the literature review and evaluations of current programs tell us about the appropriate role of the University in outreach and other college preparation programs.  New admissions policies will almost certainly have an initial effect of reducing the numbers of students admitted from groups with historically low eligibility rates especially on the more competitive campuses.  The role of outreach and other efforts to improve the college-readiness of disadvantaged students will become more important than ever before.  It is clear that stepped-up activities on multiple levels are needed to meet the challenge.  In this chapter we draw upon the findings of evaluation studies to suggest outreach strategies for the short-, intermediate-, and long-term.  We also discuss the need for a comprehensive K-16 plan for improving college preparation.

Outreach Strategies to Enhance Diversity
There are two ways that the University can increase access and success in higher education for historically underrepresented students without compromising standards.  First, it can garner a larger share of the existing pool of qualified students.  Second, it can increase the size of the pool.  The problem is of sufficient magnitude that both approaches must be utilized.  In the longer term, increasing the size of the pool is the clear strategy of choice, but especially in the shorter term, strategic recruitment has an important role to play.

Short-Term Strategies
This section provides examples of activities the University can undertake immediately to increase diversity.  We want to emphasize that while these activities are an essential piece of the diversity puzzle, they are not as powerful nor as critical as the intermediate- and longer-term solutions.

1.  Increasing the Eligibility Pool
The 1990 CPEC eligibility study¹³ provides us with the latest available data we have about the eligibility pool for the University.  For our purposes there are really two pools.  The first is comprised of students fully eligible to attend the University of California they meet all the course-pattern, grade, and test requirements.  In 1990 those students represented 12.3 percent of the California high school graduate cohort.  There is another pool of 6.5 percent, made up of students who are virtually eligible to attend the University.  One portion of this pool is made up of students who have taken all the required courses and whose grades are sufficiently high that they only need to take the SAT to be eligible.¹⁴  The second group of students in this almost eligible pool are students with good grades who are missing one or more of the tests and for whom the prospects of eligibility are quite high, even with relatively low test scores.  For this group of students, the barrier is the test.  It also happens that this group is disproportionately Latino.  For every four Latino students who are fully eligible, there are three who are almost eligible.  A short-term strategy targeting almost eligible students in areas of the state with high numbers of historically underrepresented youth to ensure that the appropriate tests were taken could materially increase University eligibility rates for these students.  Students should be encouraged to take the tests early and often perhaps as early as the tenth grade and to receive detailed feedback so that they can make up any deficiencies by the twelfth grade.

2.  Focusing Recruitment Efforts
A second, recruitment-based activity, should also enhance diversity in the University.  In two of the University's premier outreach programs MESA and EAOP, large numbers of historically underrepresented students are reported to be University-eligible.  However, not all of these students opt to enroll in the University.  In fact of the 7,777 seniors whose eligibility status can be determined, slightly less than half  3,653 were eligible for the University of California.  However, only 1,446 students actually enrolled in the University, for a capture rate of about 40 percent.  A concerted effort to zero in on a University-wide strategy to increase the take from this pool of already University- eligible students should bear immediate fruit.  Again, these students are already University-eligible; the University would merely be getting more of them to enroll.

3.  Increasing Community College Transfer
Currently, about 30% of University of California undergraduates are transfer students, most from California's 107 community colleges.  The Master Plan conceived of an even larger role for community colleges in providing lower division instruction for students who would then transfer to the University of California.  Although our review has focused on K-12 eligibility and K-12 partnerships, we would be remiss if we didn't note that many of the issues surrounding diversity need to consider the community colleges as part of the strategy.  Community colleges offer two generalized kinds of transfer opportunities for California youth.  First, they represent a low cost option for students who are eligible to attend the University but for a variety of issues (often related to costs) do not choose to attend.  These UC-eligible students, upon transfer to the University, have successful completion rates which have historically approximated completion rates for upper-division students who began their collegiate careers t the University.  The other group of students are those who are not UC-eligible upon completion of high school and need their community college years to gain the skills necessary to compete in a University environment.  For many high school students, the gap between their early high school course-taking patterns and their scholastic performance with University expectations is so great that even intense high school intervention cannot effectively close the gap.  For these students, community colleges provide an important opportunity.  The Puente project, which focus on improving transfer opportunities for Latino community college students, is an example of a community college-focused program which can improve diversity.  While some university campuses have very strong working relationships with local community colleges and work hard to recruit potential students, others do not.  Along with enhanced efforts to support programs aimed at community colleges, a strategic effort to increase the take rate from the existing community college pool of eligible students could be effective in the shorter term.

4.  Better feedback to high schools about postsecondary performance of their students.
The University sends powerful messages to K-12 schools through its admissions policies, high school course requirements, and placement tests.  Just as students and families can benefit from early information about preparing for higher education, so can the schools improve their success in preparing students for the University if they receive clear signals about requirements and feedback on their results.

The University currently tracks performance of entering freshman through their first year at the University and, in the past, prepared reports summarizing the performance of students from each high school.  We were told that the University no longer sends these performance reports to the schools because of the expense involved and because it appeared that the high schools made little use of the results.  We suggest that the University reconsider this decision as new admissions policies are implemented. 

In reprising national trends in K-16 partnerships, Haycock (1996) describes a process of intersegmental faculty-to-faculty discussions of the performance of students from specific high schools on admissions and placement tests and on their performance at the University.  Such discussions can be organized on a regional basis.  By involving University and K-12 faculty in these discussions, the process might generate more interest and improvements than are achieved with printed information only.

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