Changes in admissions criteria eliminating affirmative action will take effect at Berkeley for undergraduate students entering in the fall of 1998, following action by the Board of Regents Feb. 15.
The regents approved President Richard C. Atkinson's time line for implementing the policies adopted last July.
Originally, the elimination of preferences based on race, religion, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin was to have taken place Jan. 1, 1997.
But instead, the regents voted to implement new criteria effective spring quarter '98.
The delay in implementation at Berkeley is the result of two characteristics in the way the campus operates. Most importantly, Berkeley does not accept applications for the spring.
All students apply to enter in the fall semester.
A number of highly qualified students are offered deferred admission in the spring, but the deferral decision is made at the same time as decisions for fall entry, and from the same pool of applicants.
The second difficulty is that Berkeley is the only campus that operates on the early semester system, instead of the quarter system.
The spring semester at Berkeley begins at the same time at the winter quarter in all the other UC campuses.
In other action, the regents approved fee increases for graduate students in selected professional schools entering in the fall.
At Berkeley, this will mean a $2,000 increase for law and business, bringing the total to $6,000 a year for entering students in addition to the regular fees students pay.
For the first time, entering optometry students will also be charged a differential fee of $2,000 above the usual fees.
The board also increased out-of-state fees for nonresident students by 9 percent to $8,394 a year.