On December 15, 1975 the Board of Higher Education of the City of New York passed a resolution requiring that all applicants demonstrate on eighth grade reading and numerical competence level to be required for admittance on a full time, matriculated status. In as much as the open admissions policy had the aim of increasing the participation of minority group students in the University, a set of analyses were conducted designed to assess the effects of the new admissions criteria upon the ethnic composition of the University. It was found that 72 percent of blacks, 20 percent of whites, and 65 percent of Puerto Ricans who were admitted in 1971 would have been excluded had the new admissions criteria then been in effect. Under the original open admissions policy in effect in 1971, the ethnic composition was as follows: 18 percent black, 72 percent white, and 10 percent Puerto Rican. If the new policy had been effective at that time, the composition would have been 7.5 percent black, 87 percent white, and 5 percent Puerto Rican. In short the minority group enrollment would have been reduced from about 28 percent to 13 percent. Forty-four percent of those who entered with less than the eighth grade reading level in 1971 had either graduated or were still enrolled in CUNY three years later. There were no significant ethnic differences. (Author/JM)