First—
The people of the State of California find and declare all of the following:
(a) California has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to higher education, beginning with the state’s landmark 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education, which divided public responsibility for postsecondary education among the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges.
(b) The University of California (UC) has a unique obligation to serve the diverse ethnic and economic needs of the State and provide ample educational opportunities to California residents.
(c) Recently, there has been an alarming trend of the UC system admitting increasing numbers of out-of-state students, thereby limiting opportunities for California residents.
(d) In Fall 2012, the percentage of non-Californians admitted to the UC spiked to more than 23 percent of the freshman class, which was an increase from around 11 percent just three years before.
(e) Between 2009 and 2012, the percentage of foreign and out-of-state students at UC campuses doubled.
(f) The biggest increases in out-of-state students are concentrated at University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and University of California, San Diego (UCSD), the three most selective and perhaps most widely known UC campuses outside California.
(g) This trend is contrary to the policy of the Regents of the University of California that caps out-of-state undergraduate enrollment at 10 percent systemwide.
(h) While the UC system guarantees admission to the top 9 percent of graduates from participating high schools, an increasing percentage of these graduates are not being offered spots at more competitive schools such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD.
(i) While out-of-state students contribute to the diversity of opinions and perspectives on campus, recruiting out-of-state students for the purpose of balancing the UC budget contributes to the perceived privatization of the system and undermines public support for restoring funding.
(j) Residents of California have shown an increased desire to enroll in the UC system, as applications from California residents for admission in Fall 2012 rose to 93,298, an increase of 9.8 percent over the preceding year, demonstrating that more California residents would like to attend UC and are being turned away.
(k) The Public Policy Institute of California projects that, by 2025, there will be a deficit of one million educated workers in California unless the state is able to substantially increase rates of college enrollment and graduation.
(l) California cannot close the gap by drawing college-educated workers from elsewhere, and will need to produce more graduates through its state colleges and universities.
(m) Therefore, it is the intent of the people of the State of California to cap admissions of out-of-state undergraduate students for each incoming freshman class of the UC system at 10 percent in order to increase opportunities for California residents.