Media Contact: Debi Kammerer, (858) 534-3142

A "UniversityLink" educational opportunity partnership between the University of California at San Diego, San Diego Mesa College, and seven high schools from the San Diego Unified School District will be formally launched Monday, April 24, at 3 p.m. at Mesa College.

UCSD Chancellor Robert C. Dynes, Mesa College President Constance Carroll, and representatives from the participating San Diego Unified School District high schools will sign a "UniversityLink" agreement before a gathering of students and educators in Conference Room A102 on the community college campus. The high schools are Clairemont, Kearny, La Jolla, Madison, Mission Bay, Point Loma and Patrick Henry.

The "UniversityLink" partnership has two primary goals:

• To encourage and promote the college-going and transfer rates of the diverse student population living in San Diego;
• To enrich the UCSD campus by fostering diversity in its student population.

"UniversityLink" partnerships have already been established in two Southern California areas: a UCSD-Southwestern College-Sweetwater Union High School District partnership in southern San Diego County and a Los Angeles-based collaboration between UCSD, East Los Angeles College, and six participating Los Angeles high schools.

High school seniors are encouraged to sign "UniversityLink" contracts that stipulate two years of academic course work and individual counseling at the community college level. Successful completion of the contract, which requires students to earn 60 transferable semester units, maintain a minimum 2.8 grade point average in all UC-transferable courses, and meet UC subject eligibility, guarantees admission to a fall quarter at UCSD.