regarding...
Editorial regarding the March 17th, article,
“Some UC’s more diverse,”
and the March 19th article,
“UC Panel Backs New Admission Standard.”Congratulations to those black and Latino students for being accepted to UC campuses this year, despite the ban of affirmative action. Even though all admission figures have not yet been turned in, the slight increases in black and Latino acceptances indicates improvement. I am glad to see that more students have been working harder to receive a spot a UC campus.
As a student considering attending one of the UC campuses, I want to make sure that whichever campus I choose will have a variety of people. Since there was just a slight increase in the minority population, the UC’s will be less diverse. The UC’s need to come up with plans to open up opportunities for minorities and less fortunate students. One such plan may be the four-percent plan, recently approved by the Regents, along with Gov. Gray Davis’ education bills. Hopefully within the next couple of years, all these newly passed plans will help increase diversity in each UC campus.
Right now it is too early to tell how diverse each UC campus will be next year. After all, these are just figures of acceptances, now these accepted students must register to go to these colleges.
Editorial regarding the March 19th article,
“UC Panel Backs New Admission Standard.”As a senior successfully fulfilling the UC requirements with a GPA of 3.7 and an above average SAT II score, I was disappointed to receive four of five rejection letters from the Universities of California. I am but one of many highly qualified minority students hoping for a spot in a UC school. With my qualifications, why then was I not selected? The four percent plan passed in Sacramento this past week, has been a step forward for the students of small high schools eclipsed by the other 863 public high schools and hundreds of other private schools. I applaud the efforts of Gov. Gray Davis and other members of the Committee on Education Policy in reaching the various schools in the State yet, this plan neglects to address the need for a diverse population in our UC schools.
Even if the new policy opens doors for qualified students, this still does not ensure minority groups will be given the same opportunity. “UC studies have shown the plan would increase the proportion of eligible freshmen who are Latino or African American – up from 11 percent to 12 percent.” Therefore, the plan simply increases the chances for qualified majority students to be admitted.
In agreement with Warren Fox, the executive of the California Postsecondary Education Commission, “the 4 percent plan cannot solve UC’s challenges in the wake of race-blind admissions.” The UC system continues to devise fair admission tactics, yet each new plan leads to one controversy, Affirmative Action. Until the State can confront the issue of Affirmative Action, any plan created will fail to create the proper diversity long awaited in the UC system.
EDITORIAL REGARDING THE ARTICLE
“HIGH SCHOOLERS DEBATE RACE POLICY”
on March 17, 1999Both a minority and a student, I realize how affirmative action opens up many opportunities for me, but I also believe that one should only get what they work for. The March 17th article, “High schoolers debate race policy,” described San Francisco Unified School District’s integration plan setting strict restrictions on the ethnic compositions of district schools. To me, it seems that this plan forced high schools to accept students, not based on academic potential, but to fill a quota. So many students that never worked for their acceptance, gained one anyway. I am pleased to find that the district has decided to terminate this plan in place of the desegregation plan, which allows each school to freely decide which students have the grades and display the effort that deserves an acceptance into their school.
All of the articles arguments on whether the school district should integrate or desegregate makes me wonder. Why should ethnicity even be an issue? If the question of a persons race could be eliminated from application forms, the issue of discrimination in admissions might cease to exist. Admission directors would not know the nationality of the person they were accepting; And if someone doesn’t know what your ethnicity is, then how could they discriminate? Instead, they would completely base their acceptances on grades, and other valid aspects, rather than on filling a quota. As a senior in high school, I have been faced with many college applications, and it is clear to me that the question of nationality simply brings up a basis of debate, and discrimination.
Another aspect of this article that aroused my response was the question, “Why not focus on improving faltering schools rather than re-engineer a complex formula to achieve diversity?” It surprises me that nobody addressed this question earlier. Although understanding and being exposed to diversity is undoubtedly an important aspect of growing up, it is not worth sacrificing education for. The primary goal of schools is to educate, but it seems that, with all this debate about diversity and racial preferences, this focus is being lost.
