UCLA Faces New Controversy Over Use of Race in Admissions

UCLA is facing a renewed controversy over the use of race in its admissions policies after Political science professor Tim Groseclose resigned in protest from the Admissions committee. He has charged that the school is covering up illegal use of race as a selection criteria — a long simmering controversy at the school.

Groseclose resigned this week from the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools. In an 89-page report, he wrote that “[a] growing body of evidence strongly suggests that UCLA is cheating on admissions.

Under a 1996 voter initiative, Proposition 209, California’s public universities are barred from considering race and other factors in the admissions process. The result was a sharp decline in black enrollments. In 2006, the university embarked on a new “holistic” approach to admissions that Groseclose and others claim is a thinly veiled race-based process.

There has been an increase in admissions of black students, though the school insists that Groseclose is falsely assuming a cause and effect relationship.

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