The number of African American students admitted to the University of California dropped to its lowest level since 2000, falling 15 percent across the system's eight undergraduate campuses for fall 2004.

The decline in African American admissions was sharpest at UC Berkeley, where the number of such students accepted as freshmen declined 31 percent. Last year, 281 African Americans were admitted; this year, 194 received offers.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl called the drop "just flat-out unacceptable." Other university officials said they will investigate the reasons behind the decline, but suggested that higher fees and cuts to programs that help poor and minority students prepare for UC could be to blame.
Student activists at UC Berkeley staged an impromptu protest outside Berdahl's office Tuesday after receiving word of the drop in African American admissions.

"It's absolutely intolerable and inexcusable," said Yvette Felarca, a graduate student and organizer of a pro-affirmative action group, By Any Means Necessary or BAMN. "There are more than 194 qualified black students in the state of California who would do very well at Berkeley."

UC officials released those and other admissions figures Tuesday, offering them as evidence for how state budget cuts are pummeling California's premier public university system.

The biggest hit comes to the nearly 8,000 California residents who had the grades and test scores to qualify for freshman admission, but received no offers from any UC campus. Instead, UC is guaranteeing them a slot as juniors if they complete lower-division work at a community college. Of those students, 5.2 percent are African American, 16.6 percent are Latino, 23.6 percent are Asian American, 44.1 percent are white and 1 percent are American Indian.

"It's been a very difficult year for students," said Susan Wilbur, UC's director of undergraduate admissions. "We certainly don't like turning away students. We are certainly hoping this situation is temporary."

Overall admission rates at UC fell 7 percent from last year, the data show. Driven by state budget cuts that are forcing the university to reduce enrollment by 10 percent, UC extended offers to just under 47,000 state residents this year, compared with more than 50,000 last year.

All major ethnic groups experienced declines in admissions this year, even though UC officials pointed out that traditionally underrepresented minorities - African Americans, Latinos and American Indians - increased slightly as a proportion of total admitted students, from 19.8 percent to 20 percent.

Still, the actual number of underrepresented students who were offered admission dropped, with Latinos falling 3.2 percent and American Indians falling 9.2 percent. Offers of admission fell 8.4 percent for whites and 1.9 percent for Asian Americans.

The significant decline in African American admissions troubled UC officials, who pointed to higher fees and a reduction in outreach programs that help prepare poor and minority students for college as possible explanations. Wilbur also said applications from African American students were down this year, as part of a national trend.

Civil rights groups also are concerned.

"Basically, you have a perfect storm of outreach cuts, tuition hikes, financial aid cuts and enrollment cuts," said William Kidder, researcher with the Equal Justice Society, a civil rights and policy think tank in San Francisco. "That combination unfortunately has had a major impact for African-American students."

The last time UC Berkeley admitted fewer African Americans was 1998 - the first year affirmative action was banned - when 157 were admitted. Since then, the number of African American students had seen modest increases, to a high of 290 in 2002.

Still, the number of African American students has never rebounded to the levels before affirmative action was banned. In 1997, for example, 515 African Americans were admitted to UC Berkeley.