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Too few enroll at OC’s most prestigious campus Santa Ana Unified Superintendent Al Mijares recalls working on a Rand Corp. committee years ago that examined the college experiences of California students, including those attending UC and CSU campuses. “Back then,” recalls Mijares, “about 60% of the population at UC or CSU were California residents. The thing on everyone’s mind was, if the demographics are changing, and you have a majority of Latino students in the state, and they are not graduating from high school or taking the required courses to get into the colleges, that threatens the whole system.” The threat may have arrived. Latinos, Orange County’s fastest-growing minority group, are barely a blip among UC Irvine’s incoming freshmen class of 2006-07. University of California figures show that UCI is nearly dead last when compared to other UC campuses. Only 650 of the 5,233 freshmen committed to attending the county’s most prestigious university are Latino. That is 12.4% of the total; only UC San Diego has fewer Latino incoming freshmen, with 12% of its total. UCI classes start next month. UCI has no race-based program to specifically attract a certain population. “We cannot do targeted outreach, based on ethnicity, because of Proposition 209,” says Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth, director in the office of admissions and relations at UCI. The 1996 initiative bans college enrollment based on racial preferences. Asked what the campus might do in terms of student outreach, she responded: “It’s a multi-pronged approach. We try to be available to students who may not get counseling at every step in high school. We try to give them information so they can make an informed decision on where to go.” Family profiles Superintendent Mijares says that there are challenges with many Latino students, who may be first- or second-generation Americans: “Many don’t have a history of family literacy, (Spanish) may be their first language, (many) live in poverty. Often the kids are left to navigate the system by themselves, along with the school system. In our case, we have programs to compensate for the gaps that our students have in their academic lives.” Numbers point to a systemwide challenge for Latino students. Not counting the newly opened campus at Merced, the UC system is not where Latino students are going. Only UC Riverside, which will admit Latinos representing nearly 28% of its incoming freshmen class, comes close to reflecting the population makeup of the community in which it serves. On the other hand, UCI has the highest percentage of Asian incoming freshmen – 56.5% – of any UC school. Numerically, its 2,957 Asian freshmen will be a record when school begins in September. Some 23.5% of the incoming freshmen class, or 1,228, are white students. The county’s population is comprised of 48% white, 33% Latino, 15% Asian, and 1.29% African-American, according to the state’s Department of Finance, Demographic Research Unit. Of Orange County’s 3.1 million residents, slightly more than 1 million are Latino; the latter number represents the largest concentration in any California county outside of Los Angeles. The campus’s number of underrepresented groups – 15.2%, or 798 students comprised of Latino, African-American and Native American freshmen – is the lowest of any UC campus except San Diego. UCI’s Dr. Juan Francisco Lara, assistant vice chancellor of enrollment services, says, “We need to see those (numbers) increase. There is a sense of urgency and a sense of concern that we work even harder than we’ve been working. Undeniably. But there is no easy quick fix; you are talking about a pattern for attaining eligibility that begins in kindergarten.” “Help” is a big-village word The statistics may be a rallying call to do more. Says Lara: “It’s a countywide issue that needs to be addressed. The county of Orange needs to face the reality of who the children are in the elementary schools, and not be myopic. And ask, what is the state of Latino education in this county? Otherwise, we will not have an eligible UC group, let alone the workforce to drive the economic engine of California.” A cover story last December by our sister publication, OC METRO Magazine, examined California’s future workforce needs. A Public Policy Institute of California report, “California 2025,” shows that changing demographics mean a generation of Latinos will be needed to expand the state’s economy over the next 20 years. But they will need to be highly educated to qualify for the work. “We’re going to have a workplace that needs more highly-educated people,” said Mark Baldassare, a former UCI professor who co-edited the study. “At the same time, we have a population that has outcomes that would suggest a lower level of education…We need to figure out not just how to improve the test scores of elementary school students, but how to get students to graduate high school and go on to college.” Santa Ana Unified In Orange County, no school district can benefit more, or be more impacted, by UCI enrollment decisions than California’s fifth-largest, Santa Ana Unified. Some 93% of its 60,000 students are Latino. New programs have helped create possible inroads into the UC system, says Santa Ana Superintendent Mijares. “The class of 2006 was the first that, in order to earn a diploma, students had to accrue 240 credits; these are aligned with the University of California. So we raised our expectations, our requirements, and aligned them to the UC, so our students will be eligible.” According to admissions requirements, the top 4% of high school seniors are eligible for a UC campus; defining the components of that top 4% have been somewhat controversial. Hanging on the balance is the heavy weight placed by SAT scores and grade point averages when assessing an applicant, says Mijares. “If you’ve taken the required classes, but your gpa or your test scores are low, that might keep you out.” Mijares may have some say-so on SATS. He is leaving the district this month after 12 years to work for the SAT’s publisher, the College Board, as vice president of the Western Region. Of Santa Ana Unified’s 1,875 June graduates, 61 were accepted to a UC school and 12 to UC Irvine. (Saddleback High numbers were not available.) Informed of the UCI’s overall freshmen numbers, Mijares responded: “The 12% tells you that there is still a huge gap…It is the premier public university in the area. But we still have a large group of students who aren’t automatically getting in.” He does note that many of his high school graduates go the community college route, entering a university such as UCI after completing two years at another campus. Also, Mijares says, private universities such as USC are not constrained by Proposition 209 – “they can do what they want and are looking for a diversity of student body. They often will create a different type of system for eligibility.” Santa Ana Unified also has embarked on so-called corporate academies at a couple of intermediate schools to introduce to young students the ideas of becoming an engineer or attorney or other high-profile professional, and what is required to attain that goal. Also, the district has two other programs, including Gear Up, that use federal funds to help acquaint students to college application requirements. UCI received more than 38,000 freshmen applicants for fall 2006; its website notes that “applicants were selected after an extensive review process that consisted of the applicant’s academic achievement, personal accomplishments, and academic promise.” To read OC METRO Magazine’s cover story, “2025 – California’s Future: Why Latinos Need to Fuel the Economy,” go to: ocmetro.com/archives/ocmetro_2005/metro122205/index_ocm122205.html |
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