Affirmative Action

Colleges for years have been able to accept applicants based on their minority ethnicity for greater diversity on campus. Colleges should not use race as a factor when accepting an applicant and instead only pay attention to whether or not the applicant meets or exceeds the requirements.

Students have been turned down by colleges, particularly ivy league and difficult schools to get into, even though the requirements are met and exceeded for the college applied to. Less qualified minority students have been accepted in their place, not necessarily unqualified for the school, just less than the other applicants that were rejected.

In the 1997 case where Barbara Grutter sued the University of Michigan Law School over their affirmative action policy, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the school stating that, “(affirmative action) is a compelling state interest that can justify the use of race in university admissions.”

More recently, Harvard University has been accused of discriminating against Asian-Americans setting higher standards for them than for other applicants. The lawsuit was filed by several Asian-American applicants who were rejected by the university. “The Harvard case asserts that the university’s admissions process amounts to an illegal quota system, in which roughly the same percentage of African-Americans, Hispanics, whites and Asian-Americans have been admitted year after year, despite fluctuations in application rates and qualifications,” according to The New York Times.

Harvard University, a strong supporter of affirmative action, argues, “The ability of colleges and universities across the country to create the diverse communities essential to their educational missions and the success of their students,” is at stake. The argument for affirmative action is that diversity is an important part of the experience which makes it acceptable to consider race when admitting applicants.

If race was removed from the equation, there would be no discrimination regarding college admissions. It’s not that there should be less minority students accepted into colleges, it’s that being a minority should not be an advantage over other non, or less minority students because it reduces the fairness of some applicants on factors they can’t control.

Works Cited

Hartocollis, Anemona, and Stephanie Saul. “Affirmative Action Battle Has a New Focus: Asian-Americans.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/us/affirmative-action-battle-has-a-new-focus-asian-americans.html?module=inline.

Hartocollis, Anemona. “Does Harvard Admissions Discriminate? The Lawsuit on Affirmative Action, Explained.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/us/harvard-affirmative-action-asian-americans.html.

“Harvard Admissions Lawsuit.” Harvard Admissions Lawsuit, admissionscase.harvard.edu/.

Jacobs, Tom. “10 Supreme Court Cases Every Teen Should Know.” The New York Times, The New York Times, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20080915monday.html.