(The Center Square) – This fall, the University of California system is growing its freshman class by 3,017 slots from 85,268 students to 88,285. Black students aren’t getting a single one of the new slots according to preliminary University of California data analyzed by The Center Square.
Hispanics gained 1,435 slots in the newly expanded freshman class.Whites gained 982 spots in the class.Asian Americans grew by 359 positions.Native Americans obtained 60 additional admissions.
African-Americans remained exactly the same with 4,855 spots in the freshman class in 2022 and 2023 while their percentage of those admitted to the freshman class declined 17% from 6% of all incoming freshmen in 2022 to 5% of freshmen in 2023. If Blacks had remained the same proportion of the class, they would have gained more than 150 seats in freshman classrooms.
Moreover, Black students are being shunted to the University of California’s less prestigious campuses. Black students lost 25 freshman slots at UC Berkeley, 9 slots at UCLA and 35 spots at UC Irvine, the three schools that are the hardest to get into.
In recent years, African Americans have not always had a declining share of seats in the freshman class. Between 2021 and 2022, the freshman class size grew 1,045 slots and Blacks gained 247 seats.
Nevertheless, California has struggled to enroll Blacks in its prestigious state college system in the years since voters ended race-based admissions under Proposition 209 in 1996. In recent days, however, the University of California has presented itself as a model of how to adapt to the the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling ending such practices nationwide.
“We stand ready to share our expertise and lessons learned as we collaborate with our partners to achieve a higher education landscape that reflects the rich diversity of our nation,” said UC President Michael Drake, M.D., who is Black, in a statement after the ruling.
The University of California’s failure to enroll a single new Black freshman while expanding its class by thousands of students raises questions about that “expertise.”
Drake did not respond to multiple requests from The Center Square for comment.
However, he did put out a press release this week when the university system released broader numbers that include older students transferring from other schools. “The University’s latest admissions data reflects our commitment to expanding opportunity and to ensuring that students of all backgrounds have a chance to attend one of our excellent undergraduate campuses,” Drake said. That release did not mention that overall Black admissions including the older students fell from 5.7% of incoming students in 2022 to 5.5% in 2023.
