University of California

Laura Hamilton

Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of California-Merced

Laura Hamilton is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced, and co-founder of the Higher Education, Race, & the Economy (or HERE) Lab. Her award-winning books include: Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality, Parenting to a Degree: How Family Matters for College Women’s Success, and most recently Broke: The Racial Consequences of Underfunding Public Universities. Her work examines the ways in which postsecondary organizations and higher education funding structures work to create and maintain racial and class inequities.

Charlie Eaton

Assistant Professor, Sociology, UC Merced

Eaton's research investigates the role of organizations in the interplay between economic elites and disadvantaged social groups. His work asks what forms of organization strengthen elite efforts to consolidate power in politics and the economy? Alternatively, what are effective organizational structures and strategies by which non-elites can achieve more equitable distributions of power, wealth, and status?

Eaton's primary current project asks how the rising power and wealth of finance has contributed to rising inequality in America since the 1980s. The project particularly...

Major restrictions, socioeconomic stratification, and student success

April 16, 2020
Zachary Bleemer and Aashish Mehta

In this policy brief for the University of California Office of the President, Zachary Bleemer and Aashish Mehta present evidence suggesting that GPA major restrictions disproportionately impact underrepresented and lower-income students with less prior academic opportunity. It links those students to postgraduate outcomes to show that, in at least one comprehensive case study, pushed-out students are sharply prevented from achieving high wages or their preferred careers after graduation.

https://ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/ug-major-restri…