There's a new admissions scandal involving several schools in the University of California system, according to a report from the California State Auditor. The findings of that show that students have been admitted in exchange for money or due to influence on campus. Admission policies and practices from 2013 to 2014 and 2018 to 2019 were examined at UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara.
In all approximately 64, mostly white students are said to have received admission not based on academic or athletic merit, but because of donations from, or as favors to well-connected families with deep pockets, while denying admission to others who were more qualified.
"These inappropriate admissions decisions subverted the (UC's) high standards for admissions and denied more qualified applicants educational opportunities," according to the summary.
One way some students were able to gain admission was as as student athletes for men's and women's sports programs at each campus, including soccer, crew, golf, water polo, swimming, track and field, women's basketball, and men's tennis, the report said.
At UC Berkeley a coach is alleged to made admission as a potential student athlete possible for someone who is the child of a major financial donor, even though the student had only played the sport in high school for a single year and had done so at a low level of competition. After admission was granted, the student's family is said to have donated several thousand dollars to the team. Auditors said the student was never a part of the team and was taken off the roster after the season ended.
They also reported that the coach of one team at UC San Diego asked the coach of another team at the school to facilitate the admission of an applicant whose family had a relationship with a UCSD athletic board member. Emails from the coaches reportedly note that the board member "had helped out with scholarships (and more) in the past" and it could be beneficial to do that person a favor.
The auditors said it's unlikely they found all the unqualified students who were wrongly admitted to UC schools. They add that the campuses' athletics admissions processes are open to abuse because, among other reasons, there is inadequate oversight of the admissions process.
What's more, the report states that none of the UC campuses investigated have fully addressed the gaps in their athletics admissions processes following recommendations made in the aftermath of the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. The investigation into that conspiracy was code named Operation Varsity Blues and snared such well-know celebrity parents as Felicity Huffman, Lori Laughlin, and Laughlin's husband, Mossimo Giannulli.