(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES– Several thousand University of California students petitioned the UC Academic Senate to stop using the SAT I in admissions and raise underrepresented minority enrollment. The UC system-wide Academic Senate, which met at UC-Los Angeles Wednesday, accepted a petition signed by an unprecedented approximately 3,600 students without giving any opinion on the petition.

The petitions were collected by UC-Berkeley student Hoku Jeffery, a member of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary.

“We’re doing this petition to get mass pressure on the Academic Senate and the regents to increase underrepresented student enrollment,” Jeffery said.

Students are not allowed to address the Academic Senate, so Jeffery gave the petition to system-wide Academic Senate chairman Chand Viswanathan, who then brought the petition as an item in the meeting.

This was the first time the Academic Senate had received such a petition, which was forwarded to the Board on Admissions and Relations with Schools.

“If students want to give us a petition for information purposes we will take and pass on that information to the appropriate committee,” Viswanathan said.

BOARS currently is considering making the SAT I optional in the admissions process, and is expected to give the issue closer consideration after comprehensive admissions is finalized.

Jeffery, who also favors comprehensive admissions, is a member of UC-Berkeley’s undergraduate student government.

He said the organization will vote on whether to co-sponsor the petition next week.

Either way, Jeffery will lead a picket in front of next month’s UC Regents meeting to advocate for greater diversity.

“I think eliminating the SAT I from admissions will definitely have an impact on diversity at the flagship schools of UCLA and Berkeley,” Jeffery said.

“The tests reduce the number of blacks, Latinos and American Indians able to get a UC education.”

A recent UC study showed performance on the SAT I almost exclusively reflects a student’s socioeconomic background, but removing the SAT I from admissions would not increase diversity.