Student leader petitions against university's admissions policies

By DARYL LANG
Collegian Staff Writer

The Asian Pacific American Coalition plans to deliver a petition to Penn State President Graham Spanier this week to protest an admissions policy the coalition says is designed to reduce the number of Asian-American students at University Park.

The petition challenges a decision made last year to stop giving Asian-American students a preference in selecting which Penn State campus they attend, said Jit Chatterjee, Asian Pacific American Coalition president.

Last spring, the central enrollment management group, a committee of students, faculty and staff, decided to stop giving Asian Americans the traditional advantages they had been given when the admissions office considered their first choice for campus selection.

The decision does not affect overall admissions requirements, meaning no student who would have been previously accepted to Penn State will be denied admissions, said John Romano, vice provost and dean for enrollment management and administration.

However, because of the increased competition to attend University Park campus, more students will be offered admissions to other campuses, Romano said.

Ethnicity continues to play a role in the admissions process, said Ed Escalet, director of minority admissions and community affairs.

The process is continuously changing, however, and adjustments to admissions criteria happen several times a year based on a variety of factors, Escalet said.

Because the levels of Asian-American students at University Park have grown to reflect the diversity of the student population of Pennsylvania, the central enrollment management group decided affirmative steps were no longer necessary to keep those students at University Park, Romano said.

But Chatterjee said the decision appears to hurt the Asian-American student population.

"How is the targeting for removal of one group ever a good thing?" he said.

Escalet said admissions decisions are always made with the entire pool of applications in mind and individual changes should not be taken out of context.

Romano, who met with Chatterjee last year after the decision, said admissions criteria frequently change.

"We're not targeting Asian Americans for removal," Romano said. "We have to make judgments like the kind we made here on a regular and ongoing basis."

Chatterjee has not yet counted the petition signatures but said the coalition will submit the petition before spring break. He said it was difficult even to find out about the change in the admission process.

"We haven't been entirely happy about the communication with the administration about this issue," Chatterjee said.

The number of students who identify themselves as Asian or Pacific American has increased steadily at University Park and other campuses, according to data from the Department of Public Information.

• Asian Pacific American Coalition World Wide Web site