The skinheads will apparently be drinking beer in Cambria on Saturday, hoping to find a way to create a white society. They should ask Cal Poly.

Despite well-intentioned efforts, as noted previously in The Tribune and most recently in a story in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, Poly has dropped to about last place among major public universities statewide for enrollment of minority undergraduates.

The culprit? Numbers.

With affirmative action banned, would-be Mustangs rely mostly on their grades and standardized test scores to make the cut. They can also submit evidence of work and volunteer experience, but it's unclear how much that counts.

Unlike at University of California campuses where diversity is increasing, Cal Poly applications are read by machines, not people.

This way, applicants are treated like numbers, not people.

People live and breathe and overcome adversity. People grow up on crumbling streets and resist incredible peer pressure to join gangs and get pregnant.

People come to this country speaking only Spanish and learn a new language before they can learn anything else.

Machines understand numbers. They don't understand people.

As you can probably tell from the picture above, I'm white. But if I sound a little defensive about this, it's probably because back in 1991 after they crunched all the numbers on me, Cal Poly sent me a rejection letter.

I wasn't Mustang material; at least the machine didn't think so.

But Nishan Havandjian, then Journalism Department chairman, agreed to let me come by his office and make my case.

Afterward, he made a call to the dean and changed my life.

Havandjian got me in because as a person, I qualified.

I dare say that if that practice was more widespread at Cal Poly, there would be more than one African American and 10 Latinos for every 100 students.

Of course, the university's problem is complex.

Years of failure to recruit and admit students of color have left the campus a bland shade of white. Convincing freshmen to come and be the sacrificial lambs that break the color barrier won't be easy.

Warren Baker, Poly's longtime president, acknowledged the shortcomings of the admissions system when interviewed by the Times. "How well (students) have done has to be put in context," he said. "What opportunities have they had?"

Like everything else, this costs money, which Baker says isn't available.

But Baker's been extremely successful getting money for things he really cares about.

As an outsider, I wonder about our priorities when we fail to invest money to give all the residents of our state an equal chance.

Think we're all equal in California, that the civil rights movement has run its course, and everything's hunky dory?

Compare Cal Poly with the state institution next door, California Men's Colony.

At Cal Poly, 1 percent of those served are black. At CMC, 28 percent of those serving are black. Hispanics? Cal Poly, 9 percent. CMC, 35 percent.

I'd rather see more of my tax money spent on getting people to college.

Notice I said people, not numbers.