Non-Resident Preferences at UC?

It’s a provocative post title, but non-resident preferences may become a reality in the University of California system (UC).

Yesterday I linked to an op-ed penned by Ward Connerly, in which he cited California’s perennial budget woes. Well, UC officials may have come up with a solution: granting preferences to applicants who will pay out-of-state tuition. Naturally, the school would discriminate against qualified California applicants. An excerpt from the LA Times article:

“David Shulenburger, vice president for academic affairs at the National Assn. of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges in Washington, D.C., said he expects more public universities across the country ‘as a matter of survivability’ to at least consider additional recruiting outside their states. The premium tuition for out-of-state students helps schools afford basic functions and subsidize in-state students’ fees, he said.
…
“UC regent Judith Hopkinson recently urged the university’s governing board to consider increasing the numbers of out-of-state students for the financial and social benefits that she said are provided by a more geographically diverse student body.”

Do financial concerns justify rejecting students eligible for reduced tuition in favor of out-of-state students who pay a higher tuition? I suppose we’ll never get to the point of admitting students based only on grades and scores. Then again, have schools ever considered only grades and scores without regard to family background, race, and sex?

Being “shades of gray” creatures, we know human relations involve more than hard and fast rules and numbers. Compassion and fairness come into play, as they should in some cases. Unfortunately, so does prejudice. Where do we draw the line?

Is it “fair” to admit a black applicant from a middle class background merely because he’s a member of an historically “oppressed” group over a white applicant from a poor background merely because he’s from the “oppressor” group? Surely, at some point we have to rise above the past and do things the right way in the present.

I may be overreacting and reading way too much into this out-of-state preferences plan. What say you?