Student Affirmative Action

In the Fall, 1975, the University fo California initialted a new effort to identifiy and eliminate potentially discriminatory barriers and to increase educational opportunities for women, members of minority groups, and economically or otherwise disadvantaged students. Five, broadly based, student-faculty-staff Task Groups were established to review specific aspects of the educational process and recommend changes or new, affirmative programs.

The following is an overview of the Task Group's activities and other related developments as of 1975.

RECRUITEMENT TASK GROUP

The Recruitment Task Group is charged with the responsibility of surveying present practices of informing students about entrance into the University system, and recommending ways in which current procedures could be modified to more effectively meet the needs of women, ethnic minorities, and disadvantaged students. The manner in which outreach is presently carried out involves a number of University personnel. Generally, the Office of Relations with Schools (ORS) has primary responsibility to carry out this task; although, practically speaking, EOP personnel, faculty members, and students are also actively involved in this process.

The Recrruitment Task Force believes that non-traditional methods are needed to encourage the enrollment of non-traditional students. Based on the experience of EOP recruiters who find that even highly qualified students from disadvantaged backgrounds often need to be convinced that there is a place for them within the University, the members of the Task Group believe that active outreach efforts must be initiated by the University on a comprehensive basis if the enrollement of students from disadvantaged backgrouns is to be increased.

In order to be effective, recruiting activities must be personalized, well-coordinated, and persuasiver. The Task Group believes that there are several steps to this process, including
(1) the identification of major sources of underrepresented students,
(2) the encouragement of these students, early in their high school careers, to work to become eligible for UC;
(3) persuasion of these students to apply for admission and complete admissions procedures; and,
(4) persuasion of admitted students to accept offers of admission and enroll.

ADMISSIONS TASK GROUP

The Admissions Task Group has been asked to review the admission of undergraduate and graduate students, and to identify any barrieers within that process to non-traditional students.

The Admissions Task Group divided its area into graduate and undergraduate issues; then subdivided these into questions of procedure and questions of admissions criteria. Procedural matters, as well as some policy issues at the undergraduate level were considered first, and a consensus reached on certain recommendations including extending the open filing period, working to provide earlier feedback to applicants regarding their eligibility or deficiencies; posing clear alternatives with regard to campus or major preferences; and asking for ethnic identity on the application form. Under continued investigation are the general use of admissions criteria such as GPA and standardized test scores. These and other recommendations are in the drafting stage.

The Admissions study group view graduate admissions as its next major task. However, because of the number and variety of professional schools and graduate departments which have their own, often unwritten, priorities in admissions selection, a review of current practices will be time consuming and the subsequent recommendation procedure complex.

ACADEMIC SUPPORT GROUP

The main concentration of effort by the Academic Support Services Task Group to date has been the drafting of program proposals for the 1975=76 funding. The drafts were in the form of two proposals for academic support programs, one at the undergraduate level, and the other for entering graduate students.

The undergraduate draft proposal now being circulated is a guideline for campuses to perfect a comprehensive network of academic support services to provide assistance to educationally disadvantaged students.

The graduate draft proposal is an attempt to reduce the underrepresentation of minority, disadvantaged, and women students in the graduate programs. Some of these students may have special needs in the academic support area; therefore, a summer session is recommended at the pre-graduate level. The emphasis is twofold, that is, to instruce students in their area of deficiencies and to acquaint them on an individual level with faculty members in their field so as to ease the transition from undergraduate status to graduate status.

NON-ACADEMIC SUPPORT SERVICES TASK GROUP

The charge of this Group is to identify barriers that may impede the success of minority, disadvantaged, and women students within the UC system; and, after identification of barriers, to make recommendations on means to alleviate them. This has been one of the more difficult areas to work on because of the diverse nature of the subject matter--student services.

The immediate goal for the members of this group was to attempt to prioritize subject areas. They defined general areas of interest and are now in the process of gathering information on those areas below:
(1) personal counseling services;
(2) career counseling and placement services;
(3) health services;
(4) housing;
(5) child care;
(6) due process (avenue whereby students can air grievances);
(7) athletics.

Generally, one of the major problems facing all of these areas is a need for more funding. Setting this need aside, however, the Task Group members were aware of their need to assess to what degree the existing services are now being used by women, minorities, and disadvantaged students, and to determine if specific barriers exist which either prevent or hinder a greater usage of these services.

The Non-Academic Support Services Task Group is working to devise effective mechanisms which will allow the users of student services to have a major input in the recommendation process.

FINANCIAL AID TASK GROUP

The Financial Aid Group has divided its charge in two segments. The first segment is the identification of financial barriers to the success of disadvantaged, minority, andwomen students. The second is the recommendation of possible solutions to eliminate, or at least improve these barriers.

In the first area, the Task Group believes that, as a side effect of existing economic situations, parental contributions from historically "middle income" families may be markedly reduced, if not eliminated completely in some cases. This will put a greater burden on the pool of existing financial aid dollars.

The group would also like to explore the increased use of work study. A greater amount of work study could allow students to supplement their income, as well as permit them to shift some of their indebtedness to a work study reimbursement program Although it is now possible for a student to repay part of their loan through services performed in work study jobs, administrative policy restricts the number of hours a student can work, thereby forcing many students to increase the proportion of loans they must assume.

Along with the work study repayment plan, the Task Group is also exploring a plan of Income Contingency Loan Repayment. The level of loan repayment would be determined by a schedule calibrated on the graduate's income.

At the graduate level, the problem is in many ways much worse than at the undergraduate level. Competition at the graduate level for grants and research fellowships is quite intense, and the social benefits involved in encourageing minority and women graduate students in medicine and other sciences is great. The Task Group has realized that financial aid may be one of the few areas that greatly affects both the access and success of many students in the UC system, and in particular the Student Affirmative Action student.