UC admits more students for 2005

By The Associated Press

BERKELEY -- Returning to its long-held tradition of finding a place for all California residents who meet admissions criteria, the University of California has accepted a record 50,000 in-state freshmen for the coming fall.

The numbers represent a 10 percent increase over last year, when state budget cuts forced the rejection of some qualified students from the 10-campus system.

"We are very pleased," Susan Wilbur, UC director of undergraduate admissions, said Tuesday. "The university is very proud of its historic commitment to be able to accommodate all students who are UC-eligible."

Wilbur called 2005 a "year of good stability" following 2004, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked UC to cut enrollment by 3,200 students as part of a long-term compact that promised the university future funding increases in return for making cuts and raising fees.

Lawmakers won't be voting on the state's 2005-06 budget until this summer, but UC officials say they are hopeful they will get the additional money.

The students admitted for the Fall 2005 semester included nearly 6,000 freshmen accepted at UC Merced, which expects to open this fall with an enrollment of 1,000.

The University of California typically admits more students than it can accommodate at individual campuses since not all those admitted will choose to attend.

Numbers were up for students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, looking at systemwide aggregate totals.

But the number of black and Hispanic students admitted to the top campuses of Berkeley and UCLA was still below levels reached before 1998, when the university still used affirmative action in its admissions.

Looking at systemwide totals, American Indians, blacks and Hispanics -- the groups counted as "underrepresented minorities" at UC -- comprised 20.6 percent of all students admitted for the fall, a notch up from last year's 20 percent.

At Berkeley, where only 211 black students were admitted last fall -- 108 eventually enrolled in a class of more than 3,500 -- numbers were up slightly this year. Berkeley admitted 262 black students this year, according to UC figures. Hispanic admissions increased from 880 last year to 1,097.

UCLA admitted 247 black students this fall, compared to 196 last year.