Report 2019-113 Recommendation 9 Responses

Report 2019-113: The University of California: Qualified Students Face an Inconsistent and Unfair Admissions System That Has Been Improperly Influenced by Relationships and Monetary Donations (Release Date: September 2020)

Recommendation #9 To: University of California

To ensure that it properly protects all admissions activity against improper influence, the Office of the President should require each campus's undergraduate admissions office to do the following:
- Identify all other campus departments that participate in or provide information that affects admissions decision making.
- Obtain, evaluate, and approve a description of the criteria and processes that these departments use in rating and selecting applicants to recommend for admission.
- Annually obtain a roster from each of these departments of the individuals who will participate in admissions decision making and their roles and ensure that no single individual is responsible for such decisions in any given department.
- Ensure that each individual whom a department includes on the roster it submits has received training on appropriate and inappropriate factors on which to base admissions decisions and has agreed to abide by the campus's conflict-of-interest policies with respect to admissions.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2023

From November 2022 through January 2023, the Office of the President communicated with the State Auditor's office by phone and email to obtain additional detail on the specific documentation for each campus that the State Auditor found insufficient to fully implement this recommendation. Based on this feedback, we followed up with the campuses to update their policies and procedures to address the State Auditor's concerns.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

The University has provided evidence that each campus has adopted policies and procedures for each element of the recommendation.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

In March and April 2022, the Office of the President communicated with the State Auditor's office by phone and email to obtain additional detail on the specific documentation for each campus that the State Auditor found insufficient to fully implement this recommendation. Based on this feedback, we followed up with the campuses to update their policies and procedures to address the State Auditor's concerns.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented

The Office of the President provided documentation showing that all but one campus has fully implemented this recommendation. UC Riverside has developed processes for staff from academic departments to recommend students for admissions, but that one campus does not yet require all staff who recommend students for admission to adhere to the criteria we outline in the recommendation, such as training on appropriate and inappropriate factors on which to base admissions decisions.

1-Year Agency Response

The University president required all campuses to implement this recommendation and to document the processes and procedures, via a letter sent in November 2020. Campuses have submitted documentation that identifies participants who provide info for admissions decision-making and rosters of those involved in obtaining, evaluating and approving criteria/processes used in decision-making. Campuses also provided training materials on campus admissions policies and protocols. The Office of the President has reviewed each campus's submissions to ensure the new processes, procedures and training includes documentation of the systemwide policies within local policies and addresses the recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

The University president has required all campuses to implement this recommendation and to document the processes and procedures, via a letter sent in November 2020. Campuses have submitted documentation that identifies participants who provide info for admissions decision-making and rosters of those involved in obtaining, evaluating and approving criteria/processes used in decision-making. Campuses also provided training materials on campus admissions policies and protocols. However, some campuses only referenced BOARS or UCOP policies. The Office of the President has reviewed each campus's submissions to ensure the new processes and procedures will address the recommendation. UCOP has requested documentation of the systemwide policies within local policies. UCOP is also seeking additional information in some of the training practices where gaps were identified.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

The Office of the President indicated that it has made incomplete progress in implementing this recommendation. We requested that the Office of the President share the documentation that substantiated its progress thus far. The Office of the President stated that it had no documentation to share. Therefore, we cannot assess the validity of the statements in the response the Office of the President provided.

60-Day Agency Response

The University president has issued a letter to the campus chancellors to implement this recommendation immediately and provide documentation of follow-through no later than January 15, 2021.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

The Office of the President provided the letter it sent to the campus chancellors. We will consider this recommendation fully implemented when the Office of the President adopts a formal requirement that campuses take these actions.

All Recommendations in 2019-113

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.