UCLA’s fall class bucks trend of diversity decline at elite colleges after affirmative action ban

UCLA students, from left, Dani Taylor, Madison Hamilton, Kiara Sims and Tovia Ivbijaro on the Westwood campus on Nov. 26. “It made me feel like UCLA really wanted me.” Madison Hamilton, a first-year student at UCLA, said she connected with Black faculty, staff and students at the campus. Two years ago, as the lawsuit against affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina was making its way to the high court, the national college counseling organization invited UCLA to present a primer on how it rebounded from the sharp drop in Black and Latino students triggered by Proposition 209 — and restored diversity with race-neutral efforts. UCLA recruitment runs deep The biggest takeaway, Hawkins said, was UCLA’s “ground game.” He praised UCLA’s concerted efforts to build connections with high schools, community organizations and families whose students the university wanted to attract. UCLA’s enrollment of Black students, for instance, plunged after Proposition 209 took effect in 1997 — to 144, or 3% of first-year students in 1998 from 236, or 6%, in 1996.