The University of California’s proposal to guarantee a spot for students who graduate in the top 12.5 percent in their high school class is supposed to diversify UC campuses by tripling the number of minority students eligible to attend. The number of black, Latino, and Native American students would increase to about 36 percent of all students who are eligible. It is also supposed to help out students who are poor and/or from rural areas.

That’s absolutely terrific, but who’s to say it’ll work? For the last five years now, the number of community college students transferring to a UC campus has been going down, from about 10,900 to 10,100, according to the California Post-secondary Education Commission.

So how exactly will this proposal reverse the trend? Are these students promised admission to a university, but left without programs to help them transfer successfully?

There’s also the question of whether this proposal is another form of affirmative action, which was overturned several years ago. The UC President Richard Atkinson doesn’t think so. He says that the plan is in accordance with Proposition 209 since it is “not designed to admit by race.”

So the fact that most of the students benefiting from this plan are minorities is just a coincidence? I’m all for racial diversity in schools, but I don’t think trying to find a loophole to the ban on affirmative action is the way to do it.

Instead, they should focus on getting more of these students eligible to attend right out of high school. Community college is a great starting point, but it’s not the only way to do it.

Otherwise, the UC proposal could overcrowd California’s community colleges, and I’ll probably end up losing my favorite space in the parking garage. I smell conspiracy.