Effects of outreach may take time

By Timothy Kudo

Daily Bruin Staff

In 1995, the UC Board of Regents passed SP-1, ending the use of
affirmative action throughout the university, while at the same
time calling for a significant commitment to outreach efforts.

Five years later, minority admissions have dropped significantly
and outreach expenditures have almost quadrupled to nearly $300
million with minimal results.

Jack Sutton, the executive director of UCLA’s Outreach
Steering Committee said that it was too early to tell if outreach
is going to work but added that he is hopeful.

“I think the magnitude of the challenge is beyond what
anyone thinks it is,” he said.

Aimee Dorr, the dean of the Graduate School of Education &
Information Studies, said she thought the outreach efforts were the
right thing to do, but said there is only preliminary data on
outreach’s effects.

If people expect outreach, which ranges from tutoring to school
improvement measures, to fix California’s troubled school
system, Dorr said, they might have another thing coming since the
UC might be biting off more than it can chew.

Most people blame the lack of diversity on the quality of
education in areas with large concentrations of underrepresented
minorities and as a result, they see improving those schools as a
way to increase diversity.

“If you’re talking about making schools better, then
outreach is not the thing to do at all,” Dorr said. “If
you’re asking about diversifying the UC campuses more, school
improvement and outreach both have the potential of making a big
difference.”

This year underrepresented minority admissions made small
increases leading some to believe that outreach is showing
results.

Though nobody yet knows whether the increase will become a
trend, Terry Lightfoot, a UC spokesman, said the university was
going to continue to pursue its current outreach programs.

“We are glad to see that the numbers have stopped their
decline,” he said. “We will continue to ensure that
those numbers continue on an upward trend, but it’s difficult
to predict trends particularly when you look at the results for
only one year.”

According to Lightfoot, the university’s outreach efforts
are scheduled as five-year plan.

“These are long range goals, so we are not looking at the
next two days or the next month or the next six months to gauge
where we are,” Lightfoot said. “We are looking at
schools where we need to make systemic changes … that
doesn’t happen overnight.”

A concern for many was that those efforts would be ineffective
to students who were in high school when affirmative action ended
and before outreach had begun on its current scale.

Critics say it’s difficult to take a student one year away
from entering college and turn them into a competitive
applicant.

“I’m concerned that we’re missing the boat on
a generation of students,” said Student Regent Michelle
Pannor.

In the next couple of years, students entering college will have
had a chance to benefit from outreach. But if growth doesn’t
start happening fast, then outreach may not have a chance to really
begin, Sutton said.

As the state legislature becomes more diverse, funding for
outreach programs might be directed toward the California State
University system which has a much higher number of
underrepresented minority students than the UC does, he said.

“Their concern is their constituents get educated, and if
more are going to the Cal State University, then where should the
money be going?” Sutton said.

According to Lightfoot, the university will continue to stress
the importance of outreach as a long term benefactor to the
state.

“We will continue to try and convey to the legislature and
others the the primary reason for sticking to a long-term strategy
is to make sure that the successes that we achieve are long
lasting,” he said. “We hope that by delivering that
message they will realize that what we are trying to do is in the
best interests of the state.”

But, some university officials defend ending affirmative action
before outreach had a chance to take effect by arguing that
students who missed the boat on outreach still have the
state’s community colleges.

Currently, university outreach has focused on informing students
about requirements for college while at the same time working to
improve schools and students.

“We didn’t set out to re-create the wheel, we set
out to look at what works,” Lightfoot said.

According to Lightfoot the trend is shifting away from
informational outreach toward the improvement-based method such as
tutoring or principal training.

He also said that outreach efforts are showing some results,
since students participating in the programs have gone on to be
more successful at the university level.

Though university administrators, including Chancellor Albert
Carnesale, have said that one of the most effective outreach
methods is to use students, student-initiated outreach programs
which predate many of the university’s, have been trying to
receive increased funding from the UC system in past years to
little avail.

Though students have been attempting to get significant
university funding for their programs, something some regents have
said they approve of, Lightfoot said the university’s
position is that such things are better left handled on a
campus-to-campus basis.

“The campuses have resources available to pursue
objectives in outreach and from a system-wide perspective, we think
that’s an appropriate approach of the campuses to
take,” Lightfoot said.

Everyone agrees that the main problem facing efforts to improve
the UC’s diversity since the end of affirmative action, is
the quality of education in California ““ especially in areas
with high concentrations of underrepresented minorities.

“We need to do a better job in educating our
children,” Dorr said. “If we don’t do that, any
attempt at diversifying still leaves students
disadvantaged.”