Abstract

California's Big Squeeze

The recent news that the University of California (UC) admitted fewer African-American and Latino students into this fall's freshman class than it had in 1997 provoked a wave of alarmist headlines and editorials that mirrored the worst fears of opponents of the victorious Proposition 209, passed two years ago. Prop 209, prohibits public universities from considering race in their admissions decision. National news coverage focused on the precipitate drop of 57 percent and 36 percent in black and Latino admissions at, respectively, University of California, in Los Angeles, California and in Berkeley, California--the two flagship campuses of the system. The top level of California's public higher education system, UC has always been the destination for only a very select group of students. On average, fewer than a quarter of California students in four-year colleges attend the University of California. Despite the outcry, post-209 admissions data don't highlight gross racial inequity at the University of California.