Khachigian on Diversity in UC Admissions

Re “At UC, Proving the Critics Wrong,” Feb. 23: I welcome UC Regents Chairman Meredith Khachigian’s optimistic appraisal of the post-209 scenario for diversity at the University of California. However, the true test of the effects of the change in admissions practices will not be in the number of students applying to the university but the subsequent diversity on the campuses. Clearly, short-term changes in the number applying may have more to do with demographics, i.e., more students reaching pre-admission age.

I believe the real trick has far less to do with whether minority students decide to enroll, should they be deemed qualified, but in what Khachigian rightly describes as the long-term concern: preparedness. This preparedness is all too often described in abstract terms, with students informed as to the “value of higher education” or a “motivation to succeed.” Frankly, in real terms, it is the provision of a standard of education that will make “disadvantaged” young people competitive with their relatively “advantaged” peers.

TYRONE HARVEY

Los Angeles

* I too received the UC staff report which is the basis for Khachigian’s commentary. Essentially, she is saying, don’t worry. UC can find a way to achieve a diverse population without affirmative action. A great political statement.

Another recent UC report predicts that Latino (and other minority) admissions will “plummet” with the end of affirmative action-based admissions; even with preference based only on low socioeconomic status, minority admissions at UC will still be about half (or less) what they are today. Who are we to believe?

According to Khachigian, the solution is “outreach.” The UC staff report describes several of these outreach programs. All have been around for years. Now, of course, they are all “new and improved.”

UC is a great school. Admission requirements must be high SAT scores and good grades. The challenge is to raise the performance of minority students, not lower UC admission requirements. The Board of Regents has not addressed the problem.

FELIX CASTRO, Exec. Dir.

Youth Opportunities Foundation

Los Angeles

* Congratulations to Khachigian for claiming so quickly on the basis of self-selected UC statistics that the Board of Regents did the right thing to strike down its decades-long affirmative action policy. Of course she has the right to act as Pontius Pilate and try to wash away the shame of her vote against a policy that not only helped the ethnic peoples she selected, but the largest group she did not supply a statistic for, women. I am sure her statistical claim of righteousness will not stand the test of time.

PAUL JIMENEZ

West Covina