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The open letter, released on May 25 and initiated by mathematicians at the University of California, Berkeley, is addressed to the University of California, one of the leading public university systems in the United States, comprising nine undergraduate campuses.

As of May 30, the letter had been signed by more than 1,000 professors, including seven of the nine chairs of UC mathematics departments and an additional 43 STEM department chairs.

“Over the past five years, we have seen a widening divergence in mathematical preparation levels within the same classroom. This trend indicates that current admissions practices do not provide a sufficiently reliable check on mathematical readiness for STEM majors,” reads the letter.

The faculty members cited a November report from the University of California San Diego Senate-Administration Workgroup on Admissions, which found that the number of first-year students with math skills below a middle-school level had increased nearly 30-fold since 2020. According to the report, about 70% of those students performed below middle-school standards, accounting for roughly one in 12 members of the entering cohort.

“We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields,” they said.

UC eliminated its long-standing requirement for applicants to submit standardized test scores such as the SAT and ACT in 2020, following criticism that the exams created barriers for disadvantaged students who lacked access to test preparation resources.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, all nine UC undergraduate campuses joined hundreds of universities across the United States in dropping SAT and ACT requirements.

“The changes are aimed at making available a properly designed and administered test that adds value to the admissions decision process and improves educational quality and equity in California, even in these challenging times. During this period, UC will learn what it can about how its policies affect student achievement and access,” the University of California Board of Regents said in a statement published on the UC website in 2020.

In the first year of the policy, UC received a record number of applications.

According to official UC data, applications from California residents seeking freshman admission for fall 2021 reached a record high of 128,128, an increase of 13% from the previous year. Students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups accounted for 43% of admitted freshmen, the highest proportion of any incoming class in UC history.

But critics now say “the widening abilities gap followed the 2020 elimination of the SAT/ACT, a temporary measure that has now become a permanent vulnerability.”

“The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather, it is a prerequisite for it,” they said in the letter.

“Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome. An admissions process that ignores foundational readiness does a disservice to the most vulnerable students. True access requires an honest assessment of the support students need and where, within California’s public higher-education system, they can best receive it.”

Faculty members also argued that amid grade inflation in high schools and the growing use of artificial intelligence to assist with admissions essays, standardized tests remain among the most objective tools for evaluating applicants’ academic abilities. They are calling for the requirement to be reinstated as early as the 2027 admissions cycle.

Ahmet Palazoglu, a chemical engineering professor at UC Davis and chair of the Academic Senate, told the San Francisco Chronicle he was familiar with faculty concerns regarding students’ academic preparedness and had requested in March that the UC system’s Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools examine the issue.

Commonly known as “BOARS,” the influential body of professors, students, and administrators oversees undergraduate admissions and advises the regents on policies.

The UC Academic Senate’s BOARS is scheduled to meet on June 5 for further discussion, according to Inside Higher Ed.

According to Palazoglu, the panel plans to put forward a “roadmap of policy work” during the coming academic year “and beyond.”

Rachel Zaentz, a UC spokesperson, said in a statement quoted by the Los Angeles Times that the system “will continue to focus on strengthening instruction, collaboration and support” for math readiness in partnership with K-12 and higher education institutions.

For the 2025-26 academic year, the University of California enrolls nearly 300,000 students across its campuses, making it one of the largest public university systems in the United States.

According to U.S. News & World Report, eight UC campuses rank among the top 25 public universities nationwide.