The data was released as U.C. grapples with questions about how to best serve the full spectrum of young Californians amid widening economic inequality and debates about the value of a college education.

[Read more about whether California’s universities can still offer a path to mobility.]

On top of that, this year, the University of California was swept up in the college admissions scandal, which laid bare just how elite the system’s most competitive campuses have become.

Last month, I talked with Ms. Napolitano about changes to admissions processes meant to head off any admissions fraud in the future.

[Read more about why California was all over the admissions scandal.]

She described the university as a kind of public trust. And as such, Ms. Napolitano said, its administrators must implement policies that both “mitigate against the undue effect of privilege,” as well as work to put a U.C. education within reach of as many residents of the state as possible. The university has faced criticism for admitting too many students from out of state in the past.

This week, officials announced an increase in the freshman admission rate for Californians (by three percentage points, to 62 percent) and highlighted what was by at least one measure the most diverse class ever: 40 percent of admitted freshmen were from historically underrepresented groups, meaning they are African-American, Chicano or Latino, or American Indian.