In June 1995, California Governor Pete Wilson issued an executive order to end "preferential treatment and to promote individual opportunity based on merit." In response to the governor's order, the Regents of the University of California introduced a special resolution that barred the University from using race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin as criteria for admission to the university or to any program of study. The goal of this paper is to provide background information surrounding the new admissions policy to the University of California and its impact upon underrepresented students seeking access. After tracing some student demographics, the paper offers a history of admissions to the University of California from its inception in 1849, through establishment of the Regents of the University in the late 1800s and the setting of qualifications for admissions, to changes in the 1960s that reshaped California higher education, to the policy resolution in 1974 that addressed the issue of diversity, and finally to the June 1995 order which ended race-based decision making in admissions. The paper offers evidence and argues that this policy has caused stagnant growth in underrepresented minority student admission to the university and calls for admissions policies that address the needs of new student populations. (Contains 22 references.) (CH)