Thread by @James_S_Murphy

This California State Auditor report on UC admissions is kinda great. Come for the corruption, stay for the comics! auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2…

What's the first rule of babysitter's club?!?

Are college sports antiracist?

"This one is a bit nuanced." 🤔😁😆😅😐🤬

UCLA's admit rate is 12%.
From the report: "From academic years 2017–18 through 2019–20, UCLA’s committee for reviewing student‑athlete applicants admitted about 98 percent of the cases it reviewed."

Crucial point on why sports are the avenue for so much of this corruption: the schools want sports, they don't want to fund them (I agree), so coaches have to fundraise. No surprise that some coaches in this situation act unethically. Bad coaches! but also Bad System!

I went to grad school at Cal. I love the place. This is miserable. One Cal applicant was admitted after a UC Regent wrote a letter of support. Not clear if that person is still a Regent.

OK. Yuck.

The report isn't just about the most corrupt cases. It's also about how opaque the admissions process can be. This not bad just because students and families don't trust it (h/t @jselingo) but because it makes the institution vulnerable to illegitimate attacks.

For instance: "In 2019–20, UCLA admitted...~1000 of the applicants whom its application readers rated Recommend for Admission. However, in that same year, UCLA admitted...more than 1,100 applicants whom its application readers rated lower than Recommend for Admission."

Two readers of international applicants for the same region basically failed the test to be readers and were still hired. One gave 80% of applicants the lowest possible rating (there's just 3 at Cal). The other gave 44% the lowest possible.

Look out for Reader C!

This is just nuts. The second reader at Cal sees the ratings given by the first reader.

Thankfully, this practice is ending this fall.

The report lays the blame squarely on Janet Napolitano: "The Office of the President’s Inaction Has Allowed Weaknesses in Campus Admissions
Processes to Persist"

Napolitano is called out for another major failing. The UC System has a program like Texas, where students in the 9% of a graduating HS class are guaranteed admission. The student's school must participate in the program. More than 600 that could, don't.

It gets worse: "Among the nonparticipating high schools, almost 30 percent—about 170 high schools—have student populations that are at least 75 percent socioeconomically disadvantaged. More than 7,700 students graduated from these schools in 2018."

I'll close with this chart of who benefitted from the unfair admissions practices. #unshocking

I think this is more of a braid than a thread. Anyway. I think I missed the real point, so I went back on this whole thread.

The regent who wrote a letter for a waitlisted student has been identified. It's got some choice #privilege quotes. mercurynews.com/2020/09/24/uc-…

The UC Regent who is a billionaire, a donor to some UCs, and is married to a US Senator just can't understand why anyone is upset: “This is the first time I’ve heard that maybe I did something that wasn’t right,” Blum said. “I think it’s a bunch of nonsense.”

@TeresaWatanabe has a good update on newly released documents showing how the "bright line" between fundraising and admissions got erased at Cal. latimes.com/california/sto…