The number of minority students who enrolled at the law and business schools of the University of California fell dramatically this past fall as a result of new rules barring the consideration of race in admissions, according to systemwide data just released by the university.
The university’s academic graduate programs and medical schools, on the other hand, showed little or no change.
The biggest drop was at the university’s three law schools. From 1996 to 1997, the number of new African-American students dropped by 63 percent (from 43 to 16), American Indians by 60 percent (from 10 to 4), and Hispanic students by 34 percent (from 89 to 59). At the same time, there was a 43 percent increase in the number of Asian-Americans (from 116 to 153) and a 27 percent increase in the number of whites (464 to 589).
At the University of California’s five business schools, where 861 new students began study, the picture was similar. Enrollments by Hispanic students fell by 54 percent, from 54 students to 25; black student enrollment dropped by 26 percent from 27 to 20 and the number of American Indians stayed the same at 3. Again, there was an increase in the number of Asian-American and white students by 9 percent and 5 percent respectively.
Terry Lightfoot, a university spokesman, said that because of the volume of applicants, law and business schools relied heavily on standardized test scores and grade point averages, where minority students traditionally have fared less well.
At the medical schools, the change was far less dramatic in part, he said, because medical schools traditionally take a broader view of admission and in part because they already made some adjustment in 1996. So the total non-Asian minority student enrollment at the five medical schools fell from 73 in 1996 to 71 this past fall.
At the more than 600 graduate academic programs, black enrollment actually increased by 2
percent from 213 to 218 with Hispanic enrollment down 9 percent (508 to 464) and American Indian enrollment down 2 percent (55 to 54).
In 1995, as sentiment against racial preferences and affirmative action gained ground around the country, the regents of the University of California set new rules forbidding the use of race, gender and ethnicity in admissions.
That ended a 17-year policy begun with the 1978 Supreme Court Bakke decision permitting the use of race as one factor for the sake of institutional diversity.
The 1996-97 application cycle was the first under the new rules for graduate and professional schools and so the large drop in number of minorities enrolled last September appear to be direct results of the new rules.
