Conspiracy to admit unqualified blacks

The process worked well, except that it resulted in fewer black students being admitted. The reasons for this result are quite obvious. First, the pool of black students who are competitively admissible to academically select institutions of higher education, such as UCLA, is comparatively quite small. Second, while the black students in the admission pool have typically lower academic achievement, their academic performance cannot be traced to socioeconomic disadvantages inasmuch as Asian students, especially Vietnamese, can demonstrate greater obstacles.

In response to the lack of academic competitiveness on the part of black students, leading to their “under-representation,” black advocates complained that the admissions system was unfair to black students and needed to be changed. Predictably, UCLA administrators [implemented] the necessary changes to trigger higher rates of admission for black applicants. although they steadfastly deny that this was their rationale.

The first step was to merge the nonacademic factors with the academic ones, thereby creating a fuzzy process that is described as “holistic” review. {snip} Holistic review is a process that seeks to totally hide the motive for admitting any specific applicant.

While written essays were not of significant importance during the era of race preferences in California, once preferences were eliminated the essay became critical.

But, who is to read these essays and make the determination of which applicant, from among 51,000, would make a “greater contribution to diversity?” The answer for UCLA was to hire a disproportionate number of black high school counselors, as the “Groseclose Report” reveals (roughly a fourth of the application readers hired by UCLA for the 2007-08 review process were black). The rationale for this decision, I have no doubt, is that UCLA assumed that black readers would be more “sensitive” to applicants who are black.

In discussions that I have had with various UC admissions staff over the years, it is clear that the essay is the primary tool for identifying “under-represented minority” students. For example, if a student emphasizes that he was president of the “black student union” at his high school, the probability is extremely high that this student is not Vietnamese or Filipino.

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2008/09/if_you_like_whodunit_books.html