By Dean Maddox, Public Safety & Crime Reporter

In a growing pushback against years of progressive admissions policies, hundreds of University of California STEM professors, including more than 600 mathematicians and scientists, are calling on the UC system to bring back standardized testing requirements.

In a letter sent to university leadership, the group is urging that SAT or ACT math scores once again be required for STEM applicants starting in 2027. Their argument is straightforward: the test-blind approach, adopted in the name of “diversity” and “equity,” has left too many incoming students unprepared for college-level coursework.

The results since UC went test-blind in the wake of 2020 are hard to ignore. At UC San Diego alone, there has been a thirtyfold increase in incoming freshmen who test below basic high school math proficiency. Nearly one in eight students now needs remedial classes just to catch up. At UC Berkeley, professors say roughly 20 to 30 percent of students in calculus courses are struggling to keep pace and require significant extra support.

The faculty didn’t mince words in their letter: “The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity. It is a prerequisite for it.”

The shift away from standardized testing came alongside a move toward “holistic review,” a system critics argue has effectively sidestepped Proposition 209, which bans the use of racial preferences in public education. The stated goal was to increase diversity. But in practice, many professors say grade inflation has made GPAs a less reliable measure of readiness, while some high-performing groups, particularly Asian American students, have raised concerns about fairness. Those concerns have already fueled lawsuits and broader pushback from families.

Supporters of the policy framed it as a step toward fairness. But the downstream effects have been harder to defend. Students who aren’t ready for the work often find themselves paying for classes that reteach material they should have learned in high school. Professors are forced to slow down courses, and universities are spending more on remediation.

The professors behind the letter aren’t political operatives. They’re career scientists and educators watching the standards in their departments slip. Their message is simple: lowering the bar doesn’t help students. It puts them in a position to struggle, while shutting out applicants who were better prepared.

UC leadership has brushed off similar concerns in the past. Now, with faculty speaking out more publicly and in greater numbers, the pressure is building. The question is whether the Regents will act before the consequences become even harder to reverse.