Features

LOS ANGELES — University of California regents said Friday they will offer eligibility to certain high school students who applied for enrollment next fall but whose schools didn’t forward the necessary transcripts in time. 

Nearly a sixth of the state’s 852 public high schools didn’t submit the transcripts to the UC system for a program that offers guaranteed admission to the top 4 percent of students at any individual school. The program, which has been endorsed by Gov. Gray Davis, is intended to help those from low-income and minority neighborhoods. 

Schools that didn’t apply for the program will now have until Jan. 26 to submit the paperwork. 

The decision comes days after the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, along with seven high school seniors, sued the UC regents for unfairly keeping thousands of students from a guaranteed education. But UC officials maintain they haven’t done anything wrong. 

“This decision in no way implies that we concede the claims of the recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union,” said C. Judson King, a senior vice president for UC academic affairs. “On the contrary, UC made extensive efforts to inform schools of this program and to encourage their participation in it. We do not know why some of them did not participate.” 

An ACLU attorney said she did not know whether the lawsuit will be withdrawn but was encouraged by the regents’ action. 

“Before we decide whether this fully satisfies the requirements of fairness, however, we will need to evaluate the details of the university’s response,” attorney Rocio Cordoba said. “We look forward to learning the details of the university’s proposal to remedy the problems in its program.” 

High schools were required to file the paperwork by July 15 to take part in the program. 

The proper routing of the eligibility forms has been called into question. Some school officials said the applications were sent to individual sites but not mailed to district headquarters.