CPEC has released figures on the demographics of entering UC freshmen as percent of Calif. high school grads by various cuts. Highlights: White 5.7%; Black 4.4%; Latino 4.0%; Asian 23.1%; Male 6.4%; Female 7.7%; Total 7.1%. Note that these data do not take account of community college transfers and do not include those who entered private colleges.
Details at:
http://www.cpec.ca.gov/StudentData/CACGREthnicity.asp
Music at:
UC prez Napolitano attended her former boss’s conference on higher ed in DC last week. From the LA Times: Obama encourages economic diversity in higher education: The president and first lady are joined at a White House summit by others who have made commitments to help increase college accessibility for low-income students. California schools are well represented. More than 100 colleges and universities, including several in California, promised Thursday to try to attract more low-income students by strengthening relationships with high schools and community colleges, increasing access to advisors and offering more remedial programs… Each of the nine University of…
Apparently, freshman applications to UC are up significantly, especially to UCLA: …Once again, UCLA was the most popular choice in the system, garnering 86,472 freshman applications, up 7.5% from last year; next was UC Berkeley, 73,711; up 8.9%. San Diego was third with 73,437; Santa Barbara received 66,756; Irvine; 66,426; Davis, 60,496; Santa Cruz, 40,687; Riverside, 34,899; and Merced, 15,264… Latinos made up the largest share of UC frosh applicants who are California residents: 32.7%. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders made up 31.7% of that group; whites, 26.2%; African Americans, 5.9%. Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-applicants-20140117,0,3710326.story
The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released its budget outlook for the coming year and the next few years. Good cheer generally, except for higher ed. Revenue is up more than projected. (Recall the governor insisted on “conservative” forecasts last June.) Spending is up, too, but the net points to a rising state reserve. Indeed, the LAO simulated a mild recession and thinks we could pull through without another calamity. However, when in comes to spending on higher ed, UC is frozen at $2.8 billion indefinitely. No adjustments for inflation and enrollment growth (which LAO doesn’t think will happen based on…
Inside Higher Ed today runs a lengthy piece on a journal article concerning responses of whites to UC admissions criteria. Specifically, whites in California are less likely to favor objective measures such as test scores for admission – criteria seemingly free of bias and identified as meritocratic – when it is pointed out that Asians do particularly well on such criteria. Whites “primed” with the Asian performance results then tilt toward using fuzzier concepts such as “leadership” as criteria for admissions. You can find the piece at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/13/white-definitions-merit-and-admissions-change-when-they-think-about-asian-americans. The underlying journal article is at http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670664. Which only goes to show:
At the July Regents meeting, there will be consideration of the “Accountability Report.” While this report tends to be a booster publication, it contains interesting information on budgets, enrollment, etc. For example, the impact of the Great Recession and its budgetary aftermath can be seen on the chart above from the report. Nonresident undergrads – who pay full tuition – were increased as a percent of total enrollees. (Clicking on the chart will enlarge it and show more detail.) The Accountability Report is at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jul13/l1attach.pdf.
Yesterday, we posted an entry about Prop 209 admissions data in preparation for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action in university admissions. Now that the decision is out, the media reports generally say it will have little effect. Since California has Prop 209 restrictions in place already, it is assumed that there will be zero effect in California. Your non-legal expert is unsure that zero is the right number. As noted yesterday, the decision had the potential to affect private universities – due to their acceptance of federal funding – and public ones outside California. Suppose it turns…
