Scholarship fund aims to bring more black students to UCLA
LOS ANGELES — A private group led by several prominent UCLA alumni has raised $1.75 million to bankroll scholarships for black freshmen, hoping the additional financial aid will help increase African American enrollment at the campus.
“We want to take finances out of the question for these students, to the extent we can,” said Los Angeles businessman Peter J. Taylor, who heads the fundraising group, along with leaders of UCLA’s Black Alumni Association.
The scholarships were being announced today, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The number of black students at UCLA has been dropping for years. Last summer, only about 100 black students said they planned to enroll in the current freshman class of about 4,800 _ the lowest figure in more than three decades.
The university implemented a new “holistic” approach to admissions last fall aimed at boosting minority enrollment.
Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams said the scholarship was an innovative way to approach the dwindling number of black students on campus. UCLA has no direct role in the funds.
“This was done to increase the numbers of African American students,” Abrams said. “But I hope it may provide a model to every community to set up private scholarships that target students in their community, if they are so minded.”
Taylor and others said the scholarships were needed to help UCLA compete for top black students who might otherwise accept offers of admission _ and financial aid _ from private universities and out-of-state public schools that are not bound by California’s Proposition 209, which bars the state’s public institutions from considering race in admissions or hiring.
The scholarship fund will be administered by the Los Angeles-based nonprofit, California Community Foundation.
The group plans to make its first scholarship offers in the next few days and will give at least $1,000 to each admitted black freshman who enrolls. Additional awards will be based on financial need and academic merit.
Contributors to the fund included the Wasserman Foundation, which has donated $500,000; and Richard Ziman, a Los Angeles real estate executive, who has given $100,000.
Taylor is a former University of California regent and former president of the UCLA Alumni association. Fellow alumnus Rickey Ivie, a Los Angeles attorney and chairman of the board of directors of UCLA’s Black Alumni Association, helped get the fundraising group off the ground.
