California voters outlawed taking race into account in university admissions, but a new study by UCLA professor Tim Groseclose finds  strong statistical evidence that university officials are breaking the law and illegally discriminating in favor of blacks at the expense of whites and Asians. The sort of statistical analysis used here duplicates the kind of statistical disparity analysis embraced for decades by the civil rights movement. Maxim Lott of Fox News reports:

While the first round of admissions consideration is handled fairly, African-American students are nearly three times as likely to make it out of the "maybe" pile than equally-qualified white students, and more than twice as likely as Asians, according to Tim Groseclose, a political science professor at the school and author of a new book titled, “Cheating: An Insider's Report on the Use of Race in Admissions at UCLA.”

“UCLA is using racial preferences in admissions,” Groseclose, who made his case using data from 2006-2009, told FoxNews.com.

After a first look results in most applications being either accepted or rejected, a handful of senior university staff sift through those marked for further consideration, according to Groseclose. That’s where the alleged bias happens. He found black applicants were accepted at a  43 percent rate in the second round, while whites were accepted at a 15 percent rate and Asians at an 18 percent rate.

"All of the cheating was done by the senior staff,” Groseclose said.

And race outweighs socioeconomic status, according to Groseclose. For instance, black applicants whose families had incomes exceeding $100,000 were about twice as likely to be accepted in round two as Asian and white kids whose families make just $30,000 and had similar test scores, grades and essays.

The university denies race-favoritism, but these statistical disparities speak loudly.

Admission to the top campuses of the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA, is extremely competitive, because both schools offer the chance of an elite degree at about 25% the cost of a comparable private school. Particularly for less affluent but hard working students of any ethnicity, they are regarded as a key to career progress in life.

Asian-heritage Californians are beginning to wake up and realize that their children’s future is being held hostage to racialist policies favoring other minorities. This is a potentially explosive factor in national and California politics.

Groseclose’s charges deserve a thorough examination.

Hat tip: Instapundit