A watch-popping variety of college students on the elite UC Berkeley College of Regulation declare to have a “psychological” or different psychological disabilities, in accordance with college knowledge — main critics to accuse pupils of making an attempt to recreation the system to get extra time for his or her exams.
There are 378 legislation college students in UC Berkeley’s Disabled College students’ Program, roughly a 3rd of enrollment. That marks an enormous shift from simply 5 years in the past, when solely 3% of Berkeley’s graduate college students claimed a incapacity.
College-wide, the variety of college students within the incapacity program have steadily elevated — going from 4,153 in 2020 to five,711 final yr. The varsity claims to be “one of many first campuses within the U.S. to start accommodating college students with disabilities.”
The main incapacity varieties throughout campus are categorised as psychological or emotional issues, in addition to ADHD. Considerably much less are the variety of bodily incapacity claims.
Critics declare the numbers proof of a “sham” by college students to benefit from woke concerns by educators to achieve a leg up at school.
The numbers are preposterous, mentioned Andrew Testerman, a graduate on the legislation college who appeared into the numbers.
“At Berkeley Regulation, there are extra disabled legislation college students than there are male legislation college students,” mentioned Berkeley legislation pupil Andrew Testerman, who appeared on the numbers.
“We’re requested to imagine that college students at elite legislation faculties are considerably extra prone to be disabled than our nation’s senior residents.”
The incapacity standing unfairly offers college students benefits, Testerman mentioned.
As an illustration, these categorised as disabled had considerably extra time to take exams. In line with college knowledge, proctoring service requests to accommodate disabilities have skyrocketed from lower than 4,000 in 2021-2022 to greater than 14,000 in 2024-2025.
Professors and different critics have slammed the incapacity lodging as untrustworthy and gaming the system.
“I’ve heard from many individuals that that is the best way that wealthy individuals rip-off the system to assist their youngsters,” a pc science professor at a West Coast state college who requested to stay nameless advised The Submit.
Giving these college students extra time for his or her exams is supposedly “honest, however it’s something however,” added George Leef, of the higher-education suppose tank James G. Martin Middle for Tutorial Renewal.
“That is much more absurd once you understand that almost all college students in legislation faculties come from profitable households and have accomplished nicely all through their years of training,” he defined. “Apparently, the world of ‘social justice’ implies that we are able to’t have honest exams.”
UC Berkeley’s incapacity program was apparently geared toward addressing bodily disabilities when it was first created. However in 1982, the phrase “bodily” was dropped from its identify to embody studying disabilities, the college’s web site mentioned.
It’s in step with the college’s range programming, the place a incapacity is formally handled as a range classification, in accordance with the college’s Variety, Fairness & Inclusion knowledge dashboard.
Different faculties throughout the nation have seen comparable tendencies. At close by Stanford College, as an example, 38% of scholars have registered with the Workplace of Accessible Schooling.
Even highschool college students appear to be leaning into the “rip-off.” The variety of excessive schoolers getting further time on college-entrance exams has extra than tripled within the final decade.
Dean of Berkeley Regulation Erwin Chemerinsky advised Testerman that the legislation college has no authority over lodging and easily complies with the legislation.
The Submit contacted the college for remark.
