Pretentious universities are what every little seven year old dreams of. Colleges like Berkely, USC, and UCLA are what every high school student dreams of getting into, or at least has heard of their prestigious record and requirements. What if you heard that it might lose that title?

Governor Newsom proposed a new budget in January that community college students are able to directly transfer to UCLA (meeting a specified grade-point average) or the world-renowned university can risk losing 20 million dollars in state funding. UCLA is one of the only universities and UC that doesn’t guarantee community college students a spot in the college. 

UCLA was blindsided by this and had no prior knowledge of Newsom’s new proposal because there was no prior problem and they seemed to have a good record. UCLA is the only school that is currently being targeted. The finance department, Jack Zwald, stated that this new proposal was in the name of “equity and increased access”.

Many people are thrilled to hear this news, but what about the people that intend on going to that school because of how hard it is to get into?

Numerous students and legislators are outraged and have called it “very poor policy precedence”. This new budget has to pass the legislators by June 15, 2023. 

With all opinions roaming around, there needs to be room for statistics and actual data to back up this legislation. According to the UC data, they viewed the data and concluded that three-fourths of these state community college applications are admitted to UC and on top of this, more than half pay zero tuition. In UCLA’s transfer requirements section, it states, “We give highest priority to applications from California community colleges and other UC campuses”. 

Although Michael Drake, the UC President states, “Providing opportunities for California transfer students remains a top priority for the University, and we will continue partnering with anyone who shares that commitment” many faculty members and leaders share their distress as it can result in unintended consequences and backlash. A transfer guarantee is important and lures students into taking open spaces at colleges, UCLA gets on average 140 thousand applications, yet only around 12,800 get accepted (Freshmen). But, last school year UCLA even accepted almost 25,000 transfer students who had near-perfect grades. The UC still intends to double the number of students admitted with this new transfer guarantee. 

Students who are looking to transfer to UCLA have a potentially easier time, but the students who intend on going straight to UCLA may have an even harder time with this new transfer guarantee. 

Although there is nothing guaranteed about the new proposal to have a transfer guarantee, Newsom is determined and if UCLA does not oblige, their potential loss can be up to 20 million dollars in the state funding they need.