University of California outreach programs aimed at bringing more disadvantaged students into the system have worked but still don't reach enough people, an outside review found.

The programs are reaching their goals in terms of bringing more disadvantaged students into the system but numbers for underrepresented minorities African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans have increased at a slower rate, according to the review, presented to UC regents Wednesday.

Enrollment of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, considered underrepresented minorities at UC, totaled 21 percent in 1995, the year UC's governing board of regents voted to drop the school's old affirmative action admissions.

In 1998, when the race-blind procedures took effect, underrepresented minorities made up 15.5 percent of in-state enrolled students, a substantial drop.

By last fall, the number had risen to 17.8 percent. These are enrollment figures, but a more widely quoted figure on underrepresented minorities has been as a proportion of admissions. Last year, those groups made up 19.8 percent of the freshman class; in 1997 they comprised 18.8 percent.

Outreach wasn't the only reason for the increase; UC also made a number of admission changes during that period, including changing to a system called "comprehensive review' that looks at students' socio-economic background. Meanwhile, the state's Latino population grew, increasing the pool of those students.

Still, the review found progress.

UC outreach programs were authorized by regents at the same time they dropped affirmative action as a way of maintaining diversity. The programs can't seek out students by race because of Proposition 209, the state law forbidding making race a factor in college admissions, but they can look at things like being poor or going to a bad school.

Under the programs, UC staff as well as some faculty and students work with high school students in a variety of ways including counseling them on how to take tests and running after-school programs.

In 1997, UC administrators set a goal of doubling the number of program graduates who are eligible for UC over a five-year period, using 1998 as the base figure.

Of the three major programs, one, EAOP, the Early Academic Outreach Program, is now at 50 percent of that goal, a second, MESA, Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, is at 85 percent and the third, the Puente Project, is at 81 percent.

Gains for underrepresented minorities lagged, with EAOP showed an increase of 39 percent, MESA 70 percent and Puente 63 percent.

The review found that EAOP, the largest of the programs, may not reach its five-year goal in terms of underrepresented minorities but Puente and MESA are on track. EAOP started with 2,384 underrepresented minorities, out of a total of 3,724 students, which means it would have to reach 4,768 underrepresented minorities by 2004 to reach its goal.

The review, commissioned by UC President Richard C. Atkinson last fall, recommended that UC make the recruiting and mentoring programs part of its central mission and also said its important the university work closer with public schools.

Les Biller, the former chief operating officer of Wells Fargo Bank who oversaw the review, said he thinks UC made a mistake making the goal solely about being eligible to UC. That left high schools with less of a stake in the outcome, said Biller, who recommended that UC look at the academic success of participant, whether they're headed for UC or not.

Regent Ward Connerly, who led the 1995 vote to drop affirmative action, questioned whether the programs are going in the right direction.

"For two generations we have been dealing with this academic gap. It is getting wider,' said Connerly. "I am really frustrated about the fact that we're not any further along now than we were 10 years ago.'

But Biller said there have been successes within the outreach program.

"I share your frustration, but maybe not your sense of futility,' he said.