Oakland ~ Two African-American UC Berkeley students are on a mission in East Oakland to boost minority college enrollment despite the university's lack of an affirmative action policy.

Deanna Johnson and Branessa Kunitz are with community outreach program MINDS, which stands for Multicultural Initiative for Negotiating Diversity and Support Services.

On Monday and Wednesday evenings, they join other admissions administrators and other black university students for UC Application Cram Night at the Peralta College District Office, 333 East Eighth St. The next session, 6 to 11 p.m., will be at the same site Monday.

Students and parents learn about what it takes to get into the University of California and how to navigate the application process. Most apply online, but there's a 40-minute time limit to fill in the blanks, so the special classes are instructive.

"Knowledge is power," said Anne Marie McClure, who showed up with her 17-year-old daughter, Asa Trim. "Minority students are often discouraged ... and it becomes a learning behavior."

Getting into UC is competitive. Thousands of freshman students with 4.0 GPAs have been rejected.

Johnson and Kunitz also help students by reviewing personal essays from black, Latino, Native American and first-generation students -- a crucial part of the application packet.

"It's a chance to come from the heart, that's what I did when I talked about what I went through," said Kunitz, 31.

She was a teenage mother and pregnant again when she graduated from high school in Sacramento, where she was valedictorian. Now, she's a top UC student who plans to graduate in May with a degree in social welfare.

"We are holding these community meetings to walk people through the application process and help them along the way," said Johnson. "I started MINDS in the spring of this year because there was a gap in outreach to minorities."

Johnson, 31, had a 1.55 GPA in high school when she lived in San Francisco. But she's graduating with honors in May with a degree in American studies, with an emphasis on minority education.

Although Johnson is concerned about the lack of black students at UC -- which has 2.5 percent African-American enrollment and only 35 black males admitted this year as freshmen -- MINDS has to represent the interests of all under-represented students, she said.

After passage of Proposition 209 in 1996, which eliminated the use of affirmative action in UC admissions, university officials had some fence-mending to do. The Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California reported the acceptance rate for black students at UC Berkeley fell from 49 percent in 1997 to 24 percent the following year.

Michele Butler Larkrith is African American and works at UC Berkeley as the Northern California Outreach coordinator, Office of Undergraduate Admissions. She recalled going to a Black College Expo in Contra Costa County, where blacks showed up to get information about enrolling in the nation's historically black colleges and universities.

"One parent told me, 'Why are you here? Black students are not wanted at UC,'" recalled Larkrith, who is attending the MINDS classes.

A lack of black students at many colleges and universities is a national trend.

Officials with the United Negro College Fund say enrollment in black colleges and universities has risen in the wake of a backlash against affirmative action in California, Texas and Michigan.

While minority enrollment is now up slightly in Texas, the University of Michigan, with 39,000 students, is reporting its smallest class of black freshmen in 15 years -- 350 blacks among 5,730 entering students. Applications from blacks fell by 28 percent to only 1,337 this year. Enrollment of blacks is down this year by 26 percent at the University of Georgia and 29 percent at Ohio State University.

Rising tuitions, complex applications and SAT scores are factors in low minority enrollment, say educators. According to the College Board, only 1,877 black students scored higher than 1,300 out of a possible 1,600 on the SATs last year, while nearly 150,000 students overall were higher than 1,300.

Last week, to raise its profile, MINDS organized a student protest at UC Berkeley to dramatize the lack of black students. To raise needed funds, MINDS is co-sponsoring a black stage play called "Who's Who In the Tough Love Game" at the Black Repertory Theater, 3201 Adeline St., Berkeley, through Dec. 11.

For more information, about MINDS call 643-9580.