Is the University of California about to destroy its own standards?

UPDATE: Soros and Ayres behind the group pushing the destruction of UC’s standards

It would seem so as the University of California Board of Regents is proposing the elimination of the SAT subject test as an admissions requirement.

The SAT subject tests asses how well a student performs in 20 different subjects ranging from advanced mathematics to language skills. This part of the SATs have become an important part of admissions at nearly all American colleges and universities. In fact, the Dean of admissions for Harvard has said that subject tests are “Better predictors than either high school grades or the SAT”.

So why in the world would the UC Board of Regents want to do this?

Well, you probably already guessed but this is all an underhanded attempt to reinstate affirmative action at UC despite the fact that race based admission policies were outlawed for California in 1996. The basic logic behind this proposal is that lower SAT standards combined with the lower gpa standards they are simultaneously proposing will make more minority applicants eligible and therefor increase ever-coveted diversity.

Now, as expected, the lowering of standards has pissed some people off, here is California Assemblyman Cameron Smyth’s objection for example, and rightfully so… But the funny thing in all of this, if there is anything funny about this, is that SAT subject tests actually help minorities get into college. You see, the SAT subject tests enable minority students to showcase their abilities in certain areas, such as the social sciences and language, that would other wise be overlooked.

Thus, and quite unexpectedly, there are people pissed off because this plan would, most likely, hurt diversity in the California University system. California Assemblyman Van Tran is a great example of someone in opposition to the proposal because it would actually hurt minority students, here is his opinion.

A concerned UC grad, who tipped me off about this situation, has also told me that the Regent’s meeting where they will be discussing this proposal is coming up in mid November. So everybody try to put as much pressure on the Regent’s as possible in order to keep them from willfully destroying UC’s admission standards.

Here is the contact information for the Regents:

Email: anne.shaw@ucop.edu

Phone: 520-987-9220

Fax: 520-987-9224

Website: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/

UPDATE: Michelle might want to put this issue on the conservative “to do” list…

UPDATE: There is now a website dedicated to the cause of saving UC’s Standards