BERKELEY -- Saying they were angry and embarrassed about a sharp decline this year in the number of underrepresented minorities admitted to their campus, University of California, Berkeley students on Thursday presented administration with a list of demands for increasing diversity at the state's flagship public campus.

"We cannot sit back and watch our community suffer and do nothing," said fourth-year student Ryan Rideau, who is executive director of bridges, a student-run multicultural resource center at Berkeley.

The students' demands include the creation of a new position called vice chancellor of minority affairs, who would work to ensure that the campus' student body would be reflective of the diversity of the state, as well as the adoption of new policies to support diversity and, if necessary, work to overturn Proposition 209, the 1996 voter initiative that bans affirmative action programs.

"We're trying to hold them accountable to their decree that this is a diverse university," said James Valdez, a junior who works with the Raza Recruitment and Retention Center at Berkeley, a Latino outreach program.

The students were responding to preliminary fall 2004 admissions data released earlier this week that show enrollments of several minority groups dipped markedly at UC Berkeley.

The number of African-American students admitted for fall 2004 dropped 29 percent, from 298 students in 2003 to 211 this fall. American-Indian admissions dropped 22 percent, from 51 in 2003 to 40, and the number of Latino students admitted fell 7 percent, from 1,030 students last year to 955. The numbers of Filipino and Southeast Asian-Pacific Islander students also decreased.

"Where is the diversity UC Berkeley promised my community when we came here?" asked Renita Chaney, executive director of the Black Recruitment and Retention Center. "We are not tokens and we are not exceptions to the rule."

Dozens of students, most wearing T-shirts reading "Caution, educated students of color," joined the protest in front of California Hall, where Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl's office is located. Many of the students are volunteers with campus outreach centers that encourage minorities to apply to UC Berkeley. Some said they would no longer encourage youngsters to attendBerkeley, saying they could not continue to urge someone to attend a university that doesn't do more to encourage diversity.

But campus officials said they were also disappointed by the minority admissions numbers.

Berdahl called the numbers "flat-out unacceptable" and pledged to spend the rest of his tenure at the campus working to increase minority admission rates. He retires in June.

Associate Chancellor John Cummins said campus officials will convene a work group next week that includes students and faculty to address the issue. Cummins said one proposal could include increasing corporate involvement in recruiting students to Berkeley.

The campus, like all public institutions, is barred by Proposition 209 from considering race in admissions. Cummins said private industry is under no such prohibitions, and perhaps could run more targeted programs to attract minorities.

"Diversity is extremely important for the campus," he said. "It's one of the reasons why people come to Berkeley."

The shortage of minority students is not a problem isolated to Berkeley. UC officials said applications from all minority groups declined this year, but the decline was sharpest among African-American students. The UC system admitted 15 percent fewer black students in the fall than last year, according to the new data. Officials said cuts in outreach programs, increases in student fees and cuts to financial aid programs could have contributed to the decline, but they also noted that similar institutions across the nation have also reported fewer applications from African Americans.

William Kidder, a researcher with the San Francisco-based Equal Justice Society, said the admission rate of African-American students at Berkeley is the lowest since 1998, when Proposition 209 took effect.

"What we're seeing with budget cuts and enrollment cuts is the reversal of hard-fought gains of the last six or seven years," Kidder said.