WASHINGTON– The Supreme Court’s review of Affirmative Action Wednesday may signal the cooling of a decades long hot button issue. Oral arguments will determine whether colleges and universities can use race as a factor in making future admissions decisions.
See video of experts debating issue.
Back in 2008 attorneys representing Abigail Fisher in her case against the University of Texas case say Fisher was the victim of reverse discrimination when she didn’t get accepted into UT. They reason that, with her scores, Fisher would’ve been accepted into UT but for its preference toward admitting less qualified minority students.
Picture of the Supreme Court Justice to decide case; Justice Kagan recuses self
But, universities across the country joining UT in its brief—Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Vanderbilt among others—tacitly mentioned in their briefs that white students with stellar numeric scores loose their seats to less academically qualified white students.
According to UT’s brief, one of the universities supporting Affirmative Action received applications from nearly 2,300 valedictorians from the class of 2016. Limited academic resources forced that school to turn away nearly 2000 applicants.
Another school wrote that it rejected more valedictorians and applicants with perfect SAT scores in the past three years because the number of applicants far exceeds the number of admissions slots.
Picture of the Supreme Court
Another school could have “filled more than two matriculating classes from students ranked first in their high schools,” according to UT’s brief.
The court’s dilemma involves: Balancing the freedom colleges and universities have to create an environment that pursues their goals while not infringing on the rights of others.
During UT’s race neutral admissions program black and Hispanic student populations soared. But UT maintains that its top 10 percent plan is untenable. With more than 30,000 high schools in the U.S. and thousands of foreign applicants, guaranteeing admission based solely on objective numeric criteria could result in admitting nearly 20,000 freshman each year, more than it can accommodate.
Colleges and universities that joined UT’s brief report similar findings.
Courtroom participants seem to look forward the day race-based admissions are no longer necessary.
“One may hope, but not firmly forecast, that over the next generation’s span, progress toward nondiscrimination and genuinely equal opportunity will make it safe to sunset affirmative action,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.