Monday, 7/21/97 Regents increase funding for outreach programs OUTREACH: Report, task force pose plans to improve enrollment
By Hannah Miller Daily Bruin Senior Staff Trying to make outreach programs an effective way of ensuring diversity, the regents have approved $60.5 million for outreach on top of the $59 million already being spent. Outreach to underrepresented minorities is seen as a viable way to counter the drop in those groups' admissions rates. Since the anti-affirmative action measures were passed two years ago, minority admissions into the most competitive UCs have fallen. The UCs have used outreach since the 1960s, currently supporting over 800 programs. As a report on the subject admits, there is very little evidence that these programs actually work. "These 800 programs have not produced what we needed," said Regent Judith Levin. To change this, the regents are proposing some new approaches. Outreach programs, historically "student-oriented," will be more effective if they target the entire school environment, the regent-appointed task force recommended. One plan is to target 50 of California's academically weakest high schools. One goal of the program is to double the number of UC-eligible students at those targeted schools by the year 2002. The goal goes hand in hand with another goal suggested by the report: educational reform within the state's K-12 system. "The university cannot reach all the corners of the state," said State Superintendent of Education Delaine Eastin, attending the meeting to show her support. "We must go to the parts of the state where the less-represented students are." The task force report did show a pattern of inequality. The top one-fifth of the state's schools are 83 percent white and Asian American; the bottom one-fifth are 79 percent Black, Latino and Native American. The plan proposed some additional changes, including improvements to teacher education, evaluation of the success of outreach programs and a new emphasis on reaching California community colleges. One short-term goal of the programs is "informational outreach," educating students and families about what is required to get into college. This addresses a predominant problem facing the worst schools: a lack of college-prep classes and counseling. There was dispute, however, about whether the plan was extensive enough. "This addresses only 50 of the 151 schools in the bottom quintile," Levin said. "Are we going far enough, fast enough?" While expressing support for the programs, the regents guaranteed no specific source of funding. The task force is hopeful that the extra $60.5 million will come from state, business, federal and private sources, and the state's beleaguered K-12 schools themselves. The reaction to the plan at the regents' meeting in San Francisco was cool. Phrases like "this is the best we can do," were repeated often, as the regents faced the aftermath of SP1 and SP2 (their measures eradicating affirmative action.) Addressing the already-evident drop in minority enrollment, Regent Ward Connerly stood his ground against "special preferences." "There are painful side affects when addictions are terminated," said Connerly, who had initiated the outreach expansion by forming the task force two years ago. "When I retire as a regent in 2005, I want to see students of every color attending the UCs. We must mount a massive attempt to get our (public) schools competitive," he continued. Previous Daily Bruin Story: Number of LAUSD grads enrolling at UCs declines, 4/30/97