Slowly, UC System Begins to Accept More Minority Students

By Sean Cavanagh

The University of California system has accepted a higher percentage of underrepresented minority students for the upcoming fall semester than it did in 1997, the last year before it abolished race-based affirmative action in admissions.

The numbers offer fresh evidence, some experts said, of the system's ability to lure minority students through innovative and aggressive recruiting, despite controversial, 5-year-old changes to the 170,000-student system's admissions policies.

But the statistical gains failed to impress some critics, who contend that the last five years' worth of admissions since affirmative action ended show a university system that continues to block too many minority students from entry to the system's most selective campuses, such as...