Editorial: Holistic system is still our best bet

Last week, students at the University of California and activists filed a lawsuit challenging Proposition 209, a measure passed in 1996 that banned the use of affirmative action in California public institutions.

The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary has introduced the suit, which asserts that Prop. 209 violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and depends too heavily on students’ access to better schools.

While this board recognizes the importance of diversity in higher education, affirmative action ““ particularly at the college level ““ will not solve racial and socioeconomic disparities in California’s public education system. This board believes that minority enrollment numbers are low at UCLA not because of some bias intrinsic to the admissions process, but because California’s primary and secondary schools fail to prepare students from low-income neighborhoods for post-secondary success.

High schools with college preparatory programs and an abundance of Advanced Placement classes undoubtedly give their students an edge in the competitive UC admissions process. If more public school students had access to these programs, they would have a better chance of admission into a four-year institution.

Affirmative action may seem like a logical solution to the disproportionate number of minority students in the UC system, particularly at UCLA and UC Berkeley, but admitting students to college based on their race or socioeconomic status merely treats a symptom of a larger problem.

Students from under-funded schools might be hard-pressed to make the adjustment to a more competitive academic environment. And while we do not mean to slight the abilities of these students, it does point to a disparity in educational levels, one that calls into question the capacity of schools to prepare students for success on the collegiate level.

Beginning with the freshman class of fall 2007, UCLA implemented a holistic admissions review in which each student’s application is reviewed in its entirety by more than one reader in order to take personal, as well as academic, achievements into account. This board believes that the current system, which does not prioritize factors such as race or socioeconomic class, is a more comprehensive and equitable method of evaluation.

We do not mean to belittle the challenges posed by the lack of diversity. We are conscious that something must be done proactively to offset certain discrepancies. However, we are equally conscious that affirmative action does not hold the promise of mitigating this issue, but rather drastically simplifies it to one that can be solved through artificial adjustment.