The University of California system has left the National Merit Program, saying the plan, based largely on PSAT scores, does not fairly assess students. Beginning with the fall 2006 freshman class, the system’s six campuses, which had been funding scholarships of up to $2,000 a year for National Merit finalists, will fund other student awards, the Los Angeles Times reported. The move is considered a blow to the 50-year-old National Merit program, which is partly funded by campuses and corporations. The program annually names about 8,000 scholarship winners, many of whom are recruited as intensely as star athletes by universities around the country. Besides reliance on the PSAT, UC faculty leaders noted that Latinos, African Americans and Native Americans accounted for only 3.2 percent of UC’s National Merit scholarship winners. A spokeswoman for the National Merit Scholarship Corp. in Evanston, Ill., dismissed speculation that some of the 200 other participating universities might follow UC’s example, the Times said. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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