University of Texas Has 'Lost Control' of Admissions Policy

The president of the University of Texas says the institution has "lost control" of its admissions process and wants to amend the state law that automatically admits the top 10 percent of every high school graduating class into the UT system's flagship college, the Houston Chronicle reports.

President William Powers said 81 percent of entering freshmen are admitted through the program, which was instituted in 1998 after a federal appeals court rejected Texas's affirmative action policies for college admissions. But the 10 percent law leaves little room to admit students who do not meet that standard, Powers said: "We've lost control of our entering class because we don't have any discretion on the admissions." He suggests that the school focus its energies on transferring more students from community colleges.