UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS ACADEMIC SENATE
VOLUME XXX, No. 1
OF THE DAVIS DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
Tuesday, October 9, 2001
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Cabernet Room, Silo
A Special Meeting of the Representative Assembly is
hereby called in accordance with Bylaw 20 of the Davis Division of the Academic
Senate. The purpose of this meeting is
to discuss the proposal from the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools
that the University employ a comprehensive review in selecting undergraduate
applicants for admission to individual campuses.
Under present guidelines, any student identified
as eligible for admission is admitted to the University, although not
necessarily to the campus and major of choice.
Thus, one element of admissions involves selection of students by the
campuses and majors to which they have applied. Since the early 1970's, University guidelines have specified that
a certain proportion of the admitted class be selected solely on the basis of
academic criteria (called Tier I). The
remaining candidates are to be evaluated on academic criteria and additional
nonacademic criteria including special talents, the completion of special
projects and academic accomplishments in light of special circumstances (known
as Tier II). These selection criteria
have been revised periodically, most recently when the Regents passed SP-1
banning the use of race, gender and ethnicity in selecting from among the
applicants. In addition, SP-1 specified
that 50-75% of the entering class must be selected on academic criteria
alone. While this proportion was
slightly higher than previously, this step was especially significant in that
the Regents took action on admissions criteria, which is a responsibility
specifically delegated to the faculty.
This past May, the Regents rescinded SP-1 and restored the authority to
determine conditions for admission to the Academic Senate, subject to Regental
approval.
Within this context, President Atkinson has asked
the Senate to consider abolishing the two tier system in favor of selecting
students based on a comprehensive review of every application. This matter was referred to the responsible
Academic Senate committee, the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools
(BOARS), for consideration. BOARS has
recommended that the tiered admissions systems be eliminated in favor of a
comprehensive review that would include academic and non-academic factors that
are essentially the same as those that can be considered under the present Tier
II. BOARS has now submitted their
recommendations to the individual campuses for review and comment. At Davis, that review was conducted by our
Committee on Admissions and Enrollment, chaired by Professor Patrick Farrell. Their recommendations were then considered
by the Executive Council during the last week of August. Of course, the BOARS proposal represents
enabling legislation, and the Committee on Admissions and Enrollment has also
developed a proposed comprehensive review procedure for our campus.
Because these issues are fundamental to the way the
University conducts business, the Executive Council recommended that a Special
Meeting of the Representative Assembly be called to act on the proposed changes
to our selection procedures. In particular, the Assembly will be asked
to vote on the admissions guidelines proposed by BOARS and the implementation
proposal developed by the Davis Committee on Admissions and Enrollment. Copies of the existing, two-tiered admission
guidelines, the proposed new guidelines from BOARS, the current campus
selection procedures and the proposed new campus procedures are available on
the web for review at http://academicsenate.ucdavis.edu/documents.htm.
Please note that the agenda of this special meeting
will be limited to a single topic.
Jeffery C. Gibeling, Chair
Davis Division of the Academic Senate