Affirmative action has been on the scene for quite a while now, but lately it's been getting a lot of attention. Since it's initiation in the mid-1960's by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, there has been a debate about whether or not affirmative action is fair. If you don't already know, affirmative action is: a set of policies designed to bring greater diversity to educational settings and some workplaces (Stuber, 2015). In other words, for two roughly similar candidates vying for the same position, the applicant who would bring more diversity into the mix would be given preference.
Many critics of this set of policies believe that by using affirmative action policies, you are bringing in college students who are under-qualified. In December of 2015, Justice Antonin Scalia used "mismatch theory" to support this notion. He said, "There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a less -- a slower-track school where they do well". Well, it turns out Justice Scalia is wrong. As college students admitted through affirmative action move through college, their GPAs and graduation rates do not differ from their classmates who were not admitted by affirmative action.
Another argument against affirmative action is that it is a form of reverse racism. This, also, has not been found to be true. In fact, the percentage of white applicants admitted to competitive and/or elite universities, if affirmative action were repealed, would change one percentage point. The group that would see the most dramatic change would be minorities.
A court case involving affirmative action was brought to my attention a few months ago via various news outlets such as CNN when Abigail Fisher's lawsuit (Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin) was sent to the Supreme Court for a second time. This case has been in and out of the Supreme Court and lower courts since 2008, where judges have been hesitant about making a solid ruling. Fisher claims that if the University of Texas did not have race-based admission policies, she would have been accepted to the school.
University of Texas has a 'Top 10 Plan' where, to ensure their school has diversity, they accept roughly the top ten percent of each high school graduating class. Those ten percent kids take up roughly seventy-five percent of available seats. The rest of the acceptances are based off academics, GPA, SAT scores, extra curricular activities, and race (among other things).
Fisher's argument - that she would have been accepted to the university were it not for their affirmative action policy - was shot down by the Supreme Court June 23, 2016. This is great news for universities everywhere who continue to use race-based admissions policies.
While we are not always an equal opportunity society, a topic that I have written about before, affirmative action has been an integral part of many universities, especially University of Texas. Between 1998 (when affirmative action was first implemented at the university) and 2008, the number of African Americans enrolled in a class went from 3% of the incoming class to 20%. This is an incredibly significant number.
Though the conversations centered around race-based admissions and affirmative action will likely remain controversial, this long-standing court case ruling has been an important reminder that providing equal opportunity whenever possible is a conscious choice that must be made.
