The University of California should focus more on widening diversity among its undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and faculty and staff members, according to the findings of a study group on diversity. The group’s broad recommendations were endorsed today by the educational-policy committee of the Board of Regents of the 10-campus system.

The study group, which was formed last fall by university leaders, found that people from black, American Indian, and Chicano-Latino backgrounds were underrepresented among most student and employee populations. In many cases, women also were not represented in sufficient numbers, according to an overview of the group’s findings.

Over the next several weeks, four teams will make specific recommendations about what the university should do to improve campus diversity.

Among other actions, the overview report said, the study group’s teams will recommend that university officials re-examine how eligibility for freshman admissions is determined (including how standardized-test scores are used), do more to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who transfer to the university, establish closer relations with communities and high schools that have not traditionally sent many students to the university, and stabilize and increase funds for academic-preparation and other outreach programs the university provides at elementary and secondary schools. —Sara Hebel