UC Riverside, the only campus that guarantees a University of California education to any eligible student, will switch to a more restrictive admissions policy in 2005 stressing stricter entrance requirements and diversity.

A committee of faculty members is meeting to create the new admissions standards. The switch will affect freshmen entering UCR in fall 2005. The move - along with a 10 percent freshman enrollment cut - comes in response to Gov. Schwarzenegger's budget plan.

In the budget proposal released Jan. 9, Schwarzenegger called for $372 million in cuts to the University of California. The plan also would increase undergraduate tuition by 10 percent to $5,482 a year. Graduate tuition would be increased 40 percent to $7,307.

"The biggest impact on access right now is being driven by state budget cuts," said Jim Sandoval, UCR's vice chancellor for student affairs.

Some administrators said the past admissions policy cheapened UCR's reputation, making it a school of last resort for UC applicants.

"It actually cast a negative shadow on our campus," said Sandoval. He said he thinks the new standards will "improve people's perceptions about the Riverside campus."

Sandoval said the faculty committee is examining ways to adopt standards that other UC campuses use. The UCR committee is expected to unveil the new criteria in the next month or so, Sandoval said.

"Literally, decisions we make today have an impact in five to 10 years," Sandoval said.

UCR Chancellor France Cordova was off campus and unavailable for comment Wednesday, according to spokeswoman Kathleen Peach.

UCR now has about 17,000 students. With the changes, UCR will no longer be the safety net for students who qualify to attend UC, but don't meet other campuses' stricter standards.

The University of California's master plan calls for the university to find a place for any UC-eligible student. To be eligible, a student must be among the top 12.5 percent of graduating high school seniors statewide, meet coursework requirements and submit test scores from the SAT or ACT.

UCR currently accepts any student among the top 12.5 percent of graduating seniors.

Officials said UCR will now join other UC campuses in requiring higher grades, test scores and academic achievement.

Beyond that, each campus can devise its own policies, said Lavonne Luquis, president's office spokeswoman.

UCLA and UC Berkeley are known as the most selective of the UC campuses. Entrance requirements at Berkeley are so high that students with 4.0 grade-point averages are routinely turned away, and 70 percent of applicants were rejected in 2001.

UCR, which has become the most ethnically diverse of the UC campuses, will still maintain diversity as a goal, Sandoval said.

Currently about 70 percent of UCR students are nonwhite. Black, Hispanic and American Indian students made up about 27 percent of freshmen admissions at UCR this year.

Allison Collopy, 16, a junior at Riverside Poly High School, said her dream school is UC San Diego, but she plans to apply to UCR as a back-up.

The Riverside resident said she has strong grades and she isn't worried about getting into UCR, but she laments what new criteria could mean for some of her classmates.

"I'm a little bit disappointed in that," Collopy said. "I think that's a bummer to a lot of kids who are planning on going there."

Sandoval said that UCR still expects to meet its 2010 goal of 20,000 students, just at a slower rate of growth.

The governor's budget calls for 700 fewer freshmen at UCR this fall. In addition, the campus is expecting about 150 new graduate students.

That means UCR will stay at about 17,000 students next year, he said.