Page One

Conservative activist Ward Connerly appeared to back off on a request for an independent study of the University of California's controversial, racially-sensitive “comprehensive review” admissions policy Thursday. 

Comprehensive review, used in all UC admissions for the first time this year, weighs intangible factors like achievement in the face of adversity alongside traditional academic measures like grades and test scores. 

Critics have argued that the policy has lowered academic standards and served as a way around Proposition 209, authored by Connerly and approved by California voters in 1996, which bans the consideration of race in admissions. 

Connerly, who serves on UC's governing Board of Regents, said in September that, while he supports comprehensive review, an independent audit would relieve public concerns about the policy's fairness. 

Opponents, including Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who serves as a regent, blasted the idea and said the nine-campus UC system should wait until a key faculty committee, the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS), presented its own analysis of comprehensive review. 

That analysis came Thursday, finding that the academic qualifications of this year's freshman class were only slightly lower than the previous year's class. The study also found a very minor increase in the number of “underrepresented minorities” – African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans – admitted. 

“Your report answers a lot of questions,” said Connerly, who did not revisit the idea of an independent audit. 

But, the regent emphasized that he still has some concerns. He applauded a UC San Diego pilot study, cited in the BOARS report, which verified the household income and achievements of 437 applicants. The program, he suggested, would allay some public concerns that students are embellishing their hardships and achievements to win admission under comprehensive review. 

Connerly also raised doubts about another pilot study, run by the university's Oakland-based office of the president, which oversees the entire nine-campus system. The president's pilot program sought to verify the claims made by applicants to several UC campuses in their personal statements. 

Connerly asked whether that pilot verified any of the painful, personal stories that applicants may have included in their personal statements. “If you're talking about sensitive, personal information, we don't verify,” said Barbara Sawrey, a UC San Diego professor who chairs the BOARS committee. 

Connerly said if the university could not verify personal hardship, it should not weigh it in the admissions process. 

Connerly also asked BOARS to consider comparing a group of rejected applicants and accepted applicants to see if race played any role in admissions. Regent Gayle Binion, who represents the faculty on the board, said that was something BOARS could do. 

Several other regents said the BOARS report demonstrated that academic achievement is still the overriding factor in determining admissions and voiced opposition to the idea of an independent study. 

“I trust the faculty more than Arthur Andersen,” quipped Delaine Eastin, a regent and California's superintendent of public instruction. 

Contact reporter at scharfenberg@ 

berkeleydailyplanet.net