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William Bowen, a prominent figure in higher education research, recently advocated that selective universities should give admissions preference to students of low-income backgrounds.

Bowen, a former president of Princeton University and the current president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, gave a lecture at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education last week where he presented a research study that contained data of students from 19 selective universities, including UCLA.

This study followed students in the entering class of fall 1995 from the application process through graduation.

Martin Kurzweil, a research associate at the Mellon Foundation who worked on the study with Bowen, said the study’s findings indicated students who came from low-income backgrounds performed as well in college as their incoming SAT scores and grades had indicated. Conversely, minorities and recruited athletes were found statistically to underperform to their academic potential.

Bowen said the importance of adding more students of low-income backgrounds to college campuses was to un-tap hidden talent, to diversify the college educational experience, and to promote concern for equity.

“This proposition, central to a well-functioning democratic society, is especially important at a time when education is more critical than ever before in determining access to not only the best jobs but also to a broad set of less tangible opportunities that help us ‘live a life,’” he said in his speech at UV.

Bowen is one of the leading voices regarding equity in higher education, said Anne MacLachlan, senior researcher at Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education. His proposition has generally been positively received by higher education researchers.

While Bowen is also a proponent of affirmative action, Kurzweil said many opponents to affirmative action have shown support to giving preference to students based upon socioeconomic status instead of race.

Some students may feel they earned better grades and SAT scores than a student of low-income background and thus deserve to be admitted before students with less competitive academic standing.

But Kurzweil said “the college admissions process has never been about SAT scores alone, and by no means does it tell you everything about an applicant.”

“College isn’t just about hitting the books. It’s about developing good citizens and leaders and teaching students about life,” he added.

“Given that democracy of opportunity is a piece of rhetoric of American social life, even the most conservative of Americans should see that this would be another means of doing that,” MacLachlan said of the positive attitude of affirmative action critics toward the consideration of socioeconomic factors in admissions.

In 2003 the UC system implemented “comprehensive review” in the admissions process to give an overall assessment of applicants, evaluating personal achievement and life challenges in addition to academic scores.

UCLA has been a leader of providing opportunities for low-income students, according to the UC Office of the President.

In a study by the James Irvine Foundation on low-income students in top- ranked schools, UCLA ranked first among both public or private colleges in the number of low-income students enrolled, said Hanan Eisenman, UC Office of Admissions spokesman.

Eisenman said the study showed 34.8 percent of UCLA undergraduates come from lower income families. Following UCLA in second and third places were UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, respectively.

Eisenman said it is an important goal for the UC system to provide access to education for low-income students and that they have been very successful in doing so.

Still, Bowen said though public schools have been the most accessible for low-income students, major increases in student fees over the past five years are threatening educational access and should be taken into serious consideration.