UC urged to admit top 12.5 percent

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By Noah Grand
DAILY BRUIN REPORTER
[email protected]

Though the UC is dealing with budget cuts and space
restrictions, a joint committee in the state legislature is
recommending the University of California should not cut back on
enrollment.

The first draft of the new California Master Plan for Higher
Education, which was released on May 7, recommends that the UC
continue to admit the top 12.5 percent of high school graduates
throughout the state.

However, the draft does not include plans for long-term UC
funding or hiring additional faculty.

“This requires further deliberation in this area and
creative management of public post-secondary education institutions
to achieve efficiencies and contain costs,” said Charles
Ratliff, a consultant for the legislative committee developing the
master plan.

The UC has admitted the top 12.5 percent of California’s
high school graduates since 1960, when the original Master Plan for
Higher Education was created, defining the UC’s role with
regard to California students.

Since 1999, the legislature has been working on a new master
plan to unite guidelines for K-12 and secondary education into one
set of regulations.

The draft does not change the UC’s role as the state
leader in public higher education and research. It does suggest
that the UC, California State Universities, community colleges and
high schools should be integrated through a new California
Education Commission.

This proposed commission would provide policy and fiscal advice
“that represents the public interest in California’s
education system,” the draft said.

Currently, one of the biggest difficulties the UC faces is the
shrinking state budget, as Governor Gray Davis proposed cutting the
UC’s budget by $162 million last week.

The draft recommends that the state “adopt policies to
provide more stability for finance and dampen the “˜boom and
bust’ swings of state appropriations for post-secondary
education.”

However, the report does not specify a long-term funding
solution to provide this stability, Ratliff said.

The draft states “California should continue its
commitment to low fees for students enrolled in public
universities.”

However, it also comments that the state should resist the
pressure to buy out a student fee increase during good economic
times.

UC student fees have not increased for California residents
since 1995, because each year the state has agreed to buy out a fee
increase.

Historically, student fees go up when the economy is struggling
““ times when many students are less able to pay student
fees.

Currently, the governor’s proposed budget does not include
a fee increase, but fees could be increased during the
legislature’s budget negotiations.

An enrollment increase ““ which would be required if the UC
continues to follow the 12.5 percent plan ““ is tied to an
increase in state funding for these new students, said Vu Tran,
UCLA director of admissions.

Additionally, UCLA is restricted by the number of classrooms
available on campus, which in turn limits the number of additional
students the campus can accept.

The UC is expected to grow by 60,000 students systemwide by the
year 2010 if it follows the 12.5 percent plan.

The UC plans to accommodate some of those students by expanding
summer sessions, expanding education abroad programs and through
the new campus opening in Merced.

UCLA is expected to grow by 4,000 students over that time.

UCLA plans to increase summer session enrollment and increase
the workload of students already admitted to cut down on the number
of new students on campus.

“We can’t bring in 4,000 new students and
survive,” said Judith Smith, vice provost of the College of
Letters and Science in charge of undergraduate education.

In addition to finding places to put new students, the UC must
hire 7,000 new faculty members by 2010 to teach them, McFadden
said.

Only 3,000 of these hirings are required to meet enrollment
demands. The other 4,000 are replacements for professors who are
expected to retire during this decade.

The master plan report acknowledges the UC’s demand for
professors, but it does not make any recommendations on how the UC
should recruit those faculty members.

Current faculty members have not received expected cost of
living adjustments from the state over the last two years.

Even so, McFadden said that the UC will remain competitive with
other universities across the nation in terms of hiring new
faculty.

“The UC is the premier public university in the
nation,’ McFadden said. “It is a very desirable place
to work.”