• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

The UCLA Academic Senate approved a “holistic” approach to admissions Thursday evening.

Starting with this year’s applicants, UCLA will change the way undergraduate applications are read and scored to allow more of an emphasis on personal achievements.

UCLA has been criticized recently for declining numbers of underrepresented minority admits.

Though administrators have not said that the change in the admissions process is meant specifically to increase underrepresented minority students at UCLA, acting Chancellor Norman Abrams has said that he hopes the new process will enhance diversity.

“UCLA will work toward having more diversity because it’s important,” Abrams said. “It’s an important part of the social learning experience. If there is one thing I am intolerant of, it is intolerance itself.”

Following the 1996 passage of Proposition 209, which banned the use of race or ethnicity in admissions, UCLA was unable to implement affirmative action, which it had used since the late 1960s.

After the passage of Proposition 209, UCLA’s numbers of underrepresented minority students fell. This year, 95 black students have submitted statements of intent to register, the lowest number in decades.

In the new process, each application will be read as a whole and scored as a package. Previously, applications have been divided into sections, with each section reviewed separately.

The new process allows applications to be scored based on the entire application and has been called holistic by administrators.

As before, the packages will be read by several different University of California employees.

Thomas Lifka, assistant vice chancellor for student academic services, has said the change is a philosophical one, and that the university has been considering it for over a year.

He said the goal was to avoid admitting an applicant based on one factor.

Now that the admissions process has been officially approved, administrators need to work out all of the details, according to a UCLA press release.

Janina Montero, vice chancellor of student affairs, has said Abrams promised sufficient resources to allow this transition to take place.

Comments

Post a comment