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SAN FRANCISCO — University of California regents said Wednesday they need more information on a faculty proposal that admissions decisions be based on more than just academics. 

“Who are these people? What are their qualifications?” asked Regent John Davies at a meeting of the university system’s governing board. 

“How do we assure the public that students who go to high school, stay up nights to get good grades — that that really matters?” said Regent Ward Connerly. 

Regents discussed the proposal at their Wednesday meeting but did not vote on it. The proposal comes from a faculty committee. If approved by an Academic Senate of UC faculty, it would come back to regents for a vote in November. 

The new admissions approach follows the board’s decision in May to rescind a 1995 vote dropping UC’s old affirmative action program. 

The repeal was largely symbolic, since a state law passed in 1996 bans considering race or gender in public education. However, the May vote did call into question a requirement in the 1995 measure that at least 50 percent of students at each campus — up from the previous minimum of 40 percent — be chosen solely on the basis of academic criteria. 

The balance of students are selected on the basis of grades and test scores and supplemental factors such as talent, leadership and ability to overcome disadvantage. 

A faculty committee has endorsed changing that system to eliminate the 50 percent minimum and take the larger view of all applicants, a system known as “comprehensive review.” 

“The important thing is it is not just one or two academic criteria like high school GPA or the standardized test scores that determine the potential for success,” Chand Viswanathan, the faculty representative to the regents, said in an interview Monday. 

UC President Richard C. Atkinson supports the shift toward comprehensive review and the elimination of the two-tier system. 

The change wouldn’t affect who gets into the nine-campus system, but it could change which students get into top campuses such as Berkeley and UCLA. 

Students become eligible for UC by reaching minimum grade and test scores or by graduating in the top 4 percent of their high school class. 

UC has a policy of finding a place for all eligible students. However, being eligible doesn’t guarantee a spot at the campus of your choice.  

That’s where the academic criteria come into play.  

Each campus is now limited to taking half of the new freshman class on academics alone. 

The May repeal ordered that any changes take effect for students entering in fall 2002. 

The move toward comprehensive review is the latest in a series of changes in UC admissions policies. 

In 1999, regents guaranteed eligibility to students who finished in the top 4 percent of their high school, based on UC-required courses. This year, they approved expanding that guarantee to the top 12.5 percent, provided students who fell in the latter 8.5 percent went to community college for the first two years, although that proposal stalled last month for lack of state funds. 

Atkinson also has asked faculty members to consider dropping the SAT I achievement test as a requirement.