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University of California regents on Wednesday expressed disappointment and exasperation over the continuing low numbers of African-American students enrolled at the 10-campus system while noting a significant increase in Latino students.
A report presented to the UC regents meeting in San Francisco showed that the percentage of African-Americans from California among freshmen was 4 percent in fall 2014, compared with 3 percent in 1999. Meanwhile, the share of Latino freshmen from the state doubled to 24 percent; the share of Asian Americans was 36 percent, compared with 37 percent 15 years earlier; and white Californian freshman had dropped to 22 percent from 38 percent.
Regent Eddie Island, who is African-American, said the data about black students “is indeed a sad moment” and noted that “there are impediments to the enrollment of African-Americans, and they have not been addressed.”
Regent Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who is also superintendent-president of Long Beach City College, said it was ironic that the data came from an annual “accountability” report even though, he said, there was “no accountability, no consequences” for the low numbers of black students. “We stomp our feet and lament how terrible the numbers are, but they are going to be the same next year unless we do something different, very different.”
UC officials said that they are partly hamstrung by Proposition 209, the voter-approved initiative that bans racial affirmative action in public college and university admissions. But they say that UC has been working hard on efforts that do not violate 209, such as recruiting and outreach to high schools and churches with large African-American populations and programs that encourage minority students who have been accepted to a UC campus to visit it and then enroll. They note that much of the problem is in the K-12 schools, where more work remains on making students academically eligible for UC and that UC campuses are strengthening partnerships with high schools.
UC system president Janet Napolitano said the university must “assume this responsibility as part of our DNA and our essence.” She pledged to increase efforts to enroll more black students even in the environment of Proposition 209 and also to increase diversity among graduate students and faculty.
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FloydThursby1941 8 years ago8 years ago
Another problem is when Prop. 209 passed, everyone said there would be a renewed focus on early education, tutoring, and services to help African Americans at an early age so they could qualify. Everyone forgot that after it passed. Now you get the rich sending their kids to private school and penny pinching on tutoring services while spending billions to imprison people based on what they choose to ingest or why they choose … Read More
Another problem is when Prop. 209 passed, everyone said there would be a renewed focus on early education, tutoring, and services to help African Americans at an early age so they could qualify. Everyone forgot that after it passed. Now you get the rich sending their kids to private school and penny pinching on tutoring services while spending billions to imprison people based on what they choose to ingest or why they choose to have sex or 25 years for a stolen piece of pizza, not to mention all the other waste in the budget. Let the nonviolent felons go, some are fathers, parole them. Let’s imprison murders, armed robbers, rapists, molesters, but let’s spend the money imprisoning those who commit victimless crimes, or crimes when the only victim is a consenting adult who chose to buy the drug, and let’s spend money to tutor children. Everyone forgot that piece of the puzzle. If we need a sales tax or tax on the rich, so be it, we need to provide poor kids tutors because without it, they’ll stay poor forever.
Thomas Timar 8 years ago8 years ago
Lamentations won't solve the problem. Nor is the solution to simply admit more Black students. Getting students UC ready needs to start in the early grades and has to continue throughout a student's school years. The university has some programs for increasing the number of African-American students, but those efforts are sporadic and hit-and-miss efforts. Efforts by individuals at various UC campuses are generally unrecognized by UCOP and even by the campus where they are … Read More
Lamentations won’t solve the problem. Nor is the solution to simply admit more Black students. Getting students UC ready needs to start in the early grades and has to continue throughout a student’s school years.
The university has some programs for increasing the number of African-American students, but those efforts are sporadic and hit-and-miss efforts. Efforts by individuals at various UC campuses are generally unrecognized by UCOP and even by the campus where they are located. The university has to make an effort to support schools and school leadership. UC needs to think about working with collaborative networks that include UCOP, campuses of UC, county offices of education, and school districts.