In order to increase student diversity at the University of California, discussions for new student exchange programs with other American colleges have started, said university officials last week.

The programs will expand options for completing long-term coursework at both a University of California campus and one of several historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which are institutions that were set up specifically to serve black students, said Karl Engelbach, UC legislative director for undergraduate and graduate education.

Though many UC campuses already have short-term student exchange programs with one or more institutions of the 103 HBCUs, the UC intends to expand these programs so students may do as much as half their coursework at each institution, Engelbach said.

The effort was initiated by a state assembly resolution, passed unanimously last week, which strongly urges the UC to implement more student exchange and joint degree programs with HBCUs.

The resolution’s author, Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D–La Cañada Flintridge, said he believes such a program could address the decrease in student diversity that started with the 1996 passage of Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in California.

UC officials have supported the resolution since learning of it and are now in the discussion stage, Engelbach said.

After specific plans for the exchange and joint degree programs are made, the criteria must then go through several committees for review.

University officials will also have to talk with HBCU institutions in order to have them partner with the UC system.

“It takes many years to develop new degree programs; it doesn’t happen overnight,” Engelbach said. “We also have to have other partners that are interested (in the program). So we’ve got far more work ahead of us.”

Once these programs are developed, Portantino said a joint degree offered by both campuses will become as valuable as ones offered by schools like Harvard University.

“I think if I had a degree from both schools that would be a pretty attractive degree on the job market,” Portantino said.

The only program UCLA has with HBCUs is the Summer Humanities Program through the Bunche Center.

Regina Barnett, an English student who came from Albany State University in Georgia to do the program, said she studied hip-hop and literature closely with faculty while at UCLA.

Barnett said the experience helped prepare her for graduate school at Indiana University where she is now studying African American studies and literature.

But the program that is currently in existence does not send UCLA students to any HBCU campuses, it only takes in students from HBCUs.

Barnett said she thinks UCLA students, regardless of their color, could learn something important by attending an HBCU.

“From what I saw at UCLA, there were not that many black students and that was a concern for me,” Barnett said. “I think it would be beneficial for UCLA students to see that the climate on their campus is not a reflection of the real world. ... It would give them a more realistic depiction of what real society is like.”