Indicator 3.2Percent of Minority Students in the Freshman Class Compared to California High School Graduates, Fall 1989 to 2008
UC's goal is to reduce the "enrollment gap," or the difference between the race/ethnicity distribution of the incoming freshman class and the high school graduating class.
UC has classified "underrepresented" students as those from groups whose presence in the top 12.5 percent of the state's high school graduates is disproportionately small compared to their presence in the general population. At present, these include African- American, American Indian and Chicano/Latino students.
In 1996, the voters of California passed Proposition 209, which prohibits public institutions from considering race and ethnicity in admissions. Although Proposition 209 went into effect with the entering class of 1998, UC saw a drop in applications from underrepresented students beginning in 1995, when the issue was first raised. This, combined with lower enrollment rates, led to a reduction in the absolute numbers as well as the proportion of underrepresented minority students in UC's freshman class.
The proportion of UC's enrolled freshmen who are underrepresented minorities has increased steadily since the low point in 1996. However, most of this increase simply reflects growth in the proportion of those students among high school graduates. Since 2005, the gap between the proportion of underrepresented students among high school graduates and among UC freshmen has narrowed slightly.
Source: UCOP Student Affairs Office. Graduation numbers come from California State Department of Finance. Enrollment numbers come from UCOP Corporate Student Systems. This system contains data on all degree-seeking students Universitywide.