The Conditions for Admission:
Access, Equity, and the Social Contract of Public Universities
By John Aubrey Douglass
$24.95, 332 pages, soft cover
Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2007
Reviewed by Michelle Bombaugh
Visitation Coordinator, Office of Undergraduate Admissions
University of South Florida
Student access to postsecondary education is a pressing issue facing admission personnel at colleges and universities nationwide. Public universities encounter unique problems regarding equity and access as it affects the social contract between the institution and the state it is committed to serving.
Using the University of California (UC) as a basis for his work, John Aubrey Douglass explores the conditions for admission including access, equity and the social contract of public universities. Douglass thoroughly presents his research concerning the history of admission practices at UC dating back to the turn of the twentieth century. By using poignant quotes from past UC presidents, political officials, and local newspapers, as well as historical details, Douglass illustrates how the UC’s admission processes and affirmative action procedures profoundly affected not only the campus and local communities, but the entire state as well.
The Conditions for Admission consists of four parts. The first part explores the movement of the public university system and the creation of the social contract. Part Two covers the creation of the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education to expand California’s higher education system, as well as Educational Opportunity Plans to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the student bodies. This section also investigates the role of standardized test scores and affirmative action in the admission process. The discussion is continued in Part Three, as Douglass documents California’s fight concerning affirmative action and the aftermath of the decision to abolish affirmative action from admission processes. This section also highlights the controversy concerning the SAT as an accurate predictor of student retention and success. In Part Four, Douglass discusses the current issues of autonomy, access, funding, and privatization in American public universities. He voices his concern that lack of public funding and decreasing participation rates are lending to a decline in prestige and advantage that the higher education system in America once boasted.
As a young professional, I garnered a greater understanding of the history of the admission process, including the use of High School GPAs and standardized test scores in determining admissibility. Particularly interesting in Douglass’s work (Chapter nine) was the account of UC President Atkinson’s actions as he challenged the validity of the SAT in the admission process and contemplated eliminating the test completely while replacing it with subject-based assessments (e.g. SAT II, ACT). This type of action is important to note as admission offices are continuously debating the merit of the SAT as a predictor of student success.
In addition, I benefited from the tumultuous journey the UC navigated in creating campus communities that more closely resembled the local communities of the respective campuses. Specifically, I was intrigued by the detailed narrative of the political climate in California and the discussion regarding the local community’s reaction to the decision of the UC Board of Regents (Chapter 7) to eliminate the use of race and ethnicity in admission decisions. Responding to the needs of different constituency groups is not an easy task for higher education institutions. After reading this book, I now truly appreciate the struggle public universities encounter as they strive to serve the students, the community, and the state.
This book provides an excellent resource for admission offices and personnel who are committed to increasing access and equity to their respective institutions. By studying the past, admission offices can ensure that they make educated decisions concerning admission procedures that promote inclusion and fulfill their social contract with the state.
Back to NACAC's Current Book Reviews