On VIPS, Connerly Is Right

UC Regents voted in 1995 to end the granting of admission preferences to student applicants on the basis of race, ethnicity or gender. We opposed that decision. But the regents ought to be consistent now and ban preferences on the basis of wealth and largess.

As The Times disclosed a year ago, VIP applicants had been admitted to UC after initially being turned down. Generally, they were children of UC “friends,” or more specifically, of big-time donors to the university.

This week, UC Regent Ward Connerly, author of the controversial admissions policy based on race and gender, attempted to end VIP admissions as well. But his resolution was scuttled. Chancellors complained that it would deny them “flexibility.”

That would be fine if this was Stanford or some other private institution, where officials are free to admit whomever they want. But UC is a state-supported public university. Fairness demands that if one group of applicants is held to a certain standard, all should be.

UC President Richard C. Atkinson has promised to revisit the issue after debate in the Academic Senate. By then, he should recognize the prudence of ending this form of favoritism and urge the regents to act accordingly.