Amidst the many challenges facing our students during this time, we are deeply concerned about our high school seniors who are planning to go to college. Students in our communities already face many challenges on the path to a college degree, but we fear that the COVID-19 health crisis will further exacerbate equity gaps in who goes to college.
Low-income students, students of color, undocumented students and English Learners － whose experience with college matriculation is complex － need more time at this juncture to navigate the complex application process. They will need more guidance and direct support from counselors, and counselors and other support organizations will need more time to reach them.
To meet these needs and ensure our students have what they need to go to college, we are calling on leaders of the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems to extend the Statement of Intent to Register (SIR), housing and deposit deadlines to give our students and schools more time and support.
We commend the actions taken this week by the UCs and CSUs to temporarily modify their admissions requirements, including grades and testing requirements. These changes will help ensure that students most impacted by the current crisis do not lose access to our public universities.
At the same time, we are disappointed that no similar action was taken to extend the deadlines for registration, housing and deposits. While the UCs are urging “maximum flexibility” for students who request extensions, and some individual CSU campuses have made shifts, we know that relying on proactive student requests will mean that many students – particularly our most vulnerable students – will miss out on their college dreams because of the particular challenges at this time.
On April 3, 2020, along with 10 other community and civil rights organizations, we sent a letter to state leaders calling for the UC and CSU systems to go further in supporting high school seniors on their path to college and extend the deadlines for all. We invite your organization to join us and advocate for these extensions to give our students more time and support on their path to college.
Will your organization join us in advocating for our high school seniors and sign in support of our letter to UC and CSU leaders?
Signatories include:
Alliance for a Better Community (ABC)
Campaign for College Opportunity
Community Coalition
The Education Trust-West
InnerCity Struggle
Southern California College Access Network (SoCal CAN)
Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
Promesa Boyle Heights
United Way of Greater Los Angeles
United Way of Greater Los Angeles’s Young Civic Leaders
Watts Gang Task Force