Outreach advocates gathered at the state Capitol Jan. 7 to protest the governor's proposal to eliminate higher education's role in nurturing college aspirations among California's poorest school children.

Members of the Legislature's Latino, African American and Asian-Pacific Islander caucuses vowed to protect the outreach programs. Terminating these programs would harm the state work force by keeping disadvantaged students from getting college educations, legislators said.

"We will lose this fight if there isn't a loud cry," said state Sen. Richard Alarcon, who chaired the raucous hearing. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease."

An overflow crowd of almost 300 students, activists, staff and educators -- some wearing bright yellow shirts with pro-outreach slogans -- crammed into a hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on College and University Admissions and Outreach, the Senate Education Committee, and the Assembly Higher Education Committee.

On Dec. 18, Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger announced $12.2 million in reductions to K-12 outreach programs among other cuts to the UC system. Outreach programs, which were already cut by 50 percent last year, could now face elimination.

State Sen. John Vasconcellos ex-pressed concern about backsliding from the recent progress made in attracting underrepresented students to the state university systems. He pointed out that several years ago, in the wake of state ballot measures and other policies restricting affirmative action in higher education, UC enrollment numbers for minority students dipped significantly.

Now those figures are on the rebound, and Vasconcellos pointed to this trend as proof that outreach programs make a big difference. "The doors have reopened, and now the proposal is to close the doors again," Vasconcellos said.

Julia Vergara, a training coordinator for the Puente Project at the UC Office of the President, said budget cuts last year forced the layoff of 25 people from her program. "Puente provides three areas of service to students: teaching, counseling and mentoring," she said. "People do this work."

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said, "It's especially important to reach out to the poorest students." He added that cuts will "push" hundreds of thousands of students away from the University of California and California State University systems. "Any proposed cuts are shortsighted and border on negligence."

For more than 30 years, the UC and CSU systems have operated outreach programs as a way to provide opportunities for California students in disadvantaged circumstances to achieve academic eligibility for enrolling at a four-year public institution. Supporters point out that outreach is often simplistically defined as student "recruitment" while it significantly involves academic preparation. Outreach programs begin as early as fourth grade and continue through high school, helping students understand the benefits of an education beyond high school and the steps they should be taking to succeed -- whether in the UC, CSU or elsewhere.

Jeannie Oakes, a professor in the graduate school of education at UCLA, said research shows that outreach programs are highly effective in their mission.

For example, she said, student participants in UC outreach programs were four times more likely to complete the course work necessary for getting into college.

Oakes said about 50 percent of those admitted to the UC system come from about 20 percent of California's high schools -- indicating that huge inequities exist among the state's high schools. More than 40 percent of Latino and African-American first year students currently attending UC relied on university outreach programs to help prepare them, she added.

The study by the UC All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity reveals that students who participate in outreach programs have twice the enrollment rate in California public colleges of non-participants. "Outreach programs help level the playing field," said Oakes, noting that they close "opportunity gaps" between the richest and poorest students and provide "social capital" for achieving a diverse society.

Oakes said the proposed outreach cuts target the college hopes of more than 110,000 elementary- and secondary-school students around the state. "California's future depends on university research and innovations in education aimed at ensuring that the state's most disadvantaged students have a fair chance to get the college education they need for tomorrow's jobs," she said.

The effect of cutting outreach would be largely symbolic in closing the budget gap. Worse, it would send the message to California's most disadvantaged students that the "state cares little about their futures," Oakes added.

Alarcon and Vasconcellos both suggested getting the business community involved in funding outreach programs if state funds are lost. "You can't create a good business climate if you don't have the workforce," noted Karl Pister, chancellor emeritus of UC Santa Cruz and one of the founders of UC outreach programs decades ago.

The Governor's Office and Department of Finance declined an invitation to have staff appear at the hearing. Spokespeople for Schwarzenegger have said his proposed educational cuts were those that would pose the least impact on classroom teaching.

UC President Robert Dynes has said that the university is committed to preserving outreach programs. "These pre-collegiate programs are a core part of California's public educational mission," wrote Dynes in a Dec. 9 letter to Schwarzenegger. "These programs positively benefit K-12, community colleges, the four-year universities, the economy, and society in general."