Loor 1 I pledge my honor that I have abided by the Stevens honor system. -B.L. Bianca Loor Dr. Derek Graf CAL 103 C3 16 November 2022 Research Paper In her article “Can race play a role in college admissions? The Supreme Court hears the arguments,” author Nina Totenberg discusses the recent revisiting of the decades of precedent upheld over the years by the Supreme Court and their Republican-appointed justices, as the U.S. Supreme Court once again assessed affirmative action in higher education in late October this year (Totenberg). Totenberg argues that while affirmative action does not seem as important to the people as a public matter, the ruling out of affirmative action would have a great impact in other aspects other than college admissions. From school facilities to workplaces, the significance and effectiveness of taking race into account in any system will always stir up its arguments. The significance of specifying race in admissions has lost its original intent of eliminating racial discrimination and instead allows the question of the possibility that racial or religious discrimination was exercised. With this uncertainty, a gray area has come about regarding affirmative action. When in some cases these policies seem to be justified as they continue to be in place across many schools, the numerous court cases that come about reveal that sometimes its use and implications are not in fact justifiable. I argue that although it would cause the spread of such a controversial matter into other types of admissions types of processes, the gray area of affirmative action in education needs to be eliminated as it causes many problems of uncertainty and therefore the policies of affirmative action should go with it. Loor 2 It is important to first understand the history of affirmative action and consider its original intentions which can then be utilized to evaluate its success in recent years or how it has changed over the years from its beginnings. The ideas of racial diversity in education originally came about through Michigan’s Black Action Movement (BAM) in 1970 where they voiced concerns regarding “increased recruitment of Black students and faculty, more financial aid and supportive services, and the expansion of the Black Studies Program” (Anderson 204). This demand was approved by the Senate Advisory Committee for University affairs (SACUA) and the first implications of affirmative action were put into place in eighteen schools with the use of racial quotas. One of the earliest applications of affirmative-action-like policies were brought about by Black people and therefore for the benefit of Black people as a minority. Specifying race in admissions did initially have good intentions with wanting to assist those of the minority achieve greater in education as it was even pushed by a Black organization. This new solution to diversity in schools though, was not successful even from its beginnings. A great strike came about due to BAM’s discontentment on the efforts of Regents and the University administration of the new policies. Change and reinforcement was brought again and as a result, “the enrollment of minority students increased significantly over the next three years” (Anderson 206). Although seemingly successful then, these quotas again failed to be met just a few years later and this cycle continues. Affirmative action policies have been rocky and unstable from the start and prove to be faulty. In more recent years, affirmative action continues to be questioned and many cases regarding affirmative action and the violation of the 1984 civil rights act are brought before the Supreme Court. Just recently this year (late October 2022), the Supreme Court was presented with a case and their decision toward ruling that “race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful, based on questioning over five Loor 3 hours of vigorous and sometimes testy arguments” (Liptak), would result in chaos. This more recent case helps to indicate that affirmative action policies have not been and currently are not successful nor reliable as these inconsistencies and problems reveal its unsuitability to remain implemented in educational institutions. Affirmative action policies have never been stable and sustainable. Although its original intentions were right in that Black people should have more access in schools due to the overpowerment of White people and their years of racial discrimination in society, affirmative action and its racial quotas have only brought more issues to the table and the flaws of these polices as well as alternatives to ending racial discrimination and increasing diversity in classrooms must be evaluated. Before alternatives are considered, the significance of racial and cultural diversity must be brought to light. The purpose of affirmative action is to work against discrimination and increases diversity to ensure that one race, ethnicity, sex, or religion is not favored over another. Cultural diversity increases cultural awareness in any setting. In a study to examine the perceptions of educational leadership graduate students regarding multicultural education and transformative leadership through pedagogy, it was discussed how “we all have something different and positive to bring to the conversation, and we as people need to learn from each other” (Doucette et al. 1267). This highlights the key idea of diversity in education in that all students can contribute to the betterment of everyone’s learning as their own background and experiences allow other students to see a different perspective or learn something new, rather than everyone having the same cultural background and there being less expanding of their knowledge. Similarly to this idea of the benefits of cultural and racial diversity, there is the idea of the minority and the majority in schools and how both can benefit from this diversity and inclusion. Affirmative action and its original intent of eliminating discrimination would benefit Loor 4 both the majority and minority as it can be interpreted that “what is in the minority's interest is eventually in the majority’s interest, e.g., that increasing the number of minority students and minority staff is good for everybody in postsecondary education - minority and majority-alike” (Barger et al. 8). It is important to address that both of these parties would benefit because it is easy to assume that more racial and ethnic diversity is only beneficial to those who would not typically have the opportunity to be in a place along the majority. In reality, diversity, especially in a classroom setting, is valuable to all students and even the teachers as the same development of awareness and understanding can be shared between all individuals of the setting, therefore with eliminating affirmative action there must be a new policy to replace it to ensure the presence of this valuable diversity in education. It has become apparent that affirmative action is not perfect even with its good intentions of increasing diversity, therefore this policy must be altered or completely thrown out for a more effective and longlasting approach to attacking discrimination in educational institutions. The central problem with the current affirmative action policies is that it is not equitable. Edward Blum, the president of Students for Fair Admissions, shared that “equity is now the enemy of equality” (McGurn). The term equity has been taken advantage of by admissions to justify admitting certain students to reach racial quotas, when this is not truly equitable. To tackle this equity-related problem, an ethical approach to affirmative action is brought about. Students' admissions are focussed on the wrong aspects when considering race and other attributes of an applicant which creates this lack of true equity. With too much focus on accomplishments that students have achieved in only a small portion of their lifetime that are dependent on unequal factors such as wealth, “admission should be based on expectations of future benefits to society, … evaluating their potential on the basis of what they have accomplished, in the context of Loor 5 opportunities available to them” (Hill). Changing the angle of what admissions focus on regarding each student would be a more efficient way of increasing diversity in educational institutions without taking their race into consideration. The aforementioned discussed in “An Alternative Approach to Affirmative Action” published in 2022 aligns with a similar idea of a paper presented at the Eighth National Conference on Blacks in Higher Education in 1983. Authors Robert N. and Josephine C. Barger proclaimed almost forty years ago that “granted that everyone is not similarly situated, the way to remedy [problems with affirmative action] is to focus on the needs of individuals rather than, to structure programs for whole racial groups” (Barger et al. 4). The Bargers also proposed another, more practical approach when considering raising the number of minority students in educational institutions. It was argued that key points in gathering more minority admissions was to ensure that current minority students stay enrolled and that institutions must begin “making themselves more socially, culturally, economically and politically attractive to minority students” (Barger 6). This idea of appealing to the minority implies a more diverse staff/faculty, more programs available to them, and more financial support. Both main alternatives to affirmative action prove there are ethical and practical ways to increase diversity in educational institutions without the need to specify one’s race in admissions. These propositions are not far-fetched nor complicated regarding their basic manner. Current affirmative action policies including specifying race in admissions and the implementation of racial quotas that are never consistently justified must be overthrown for these more unproblematic and clear solutions. It is clear that tackling discrimination and incresing diversity in educational institutions is not a simple task, but affirmative action and its polices have not been adequate in solving these problems either despite its original intentions of doing exactly that. Affirmative action has Loor 6 proven to be faulty ever since its beginnings, further increasing the urgency to do something about this problematic policy that affects so many students every year. Rather than simply getting rid of this unsustainable policy, its alternatives must be considered as increasing diversity will always remain significant in education. Although there would be backlash into other types of admissions processes, affirmative action in educational institutions needs to be replaced for a more effective way to proceed with its objectives. While some may argue that scores can simply be considered without race, students’ performance measured through grade point averages (GPA) and standardized test scores are not an adequate measure of student potential as family wealth can play a great role in these scores which can go back to a disadvantage to the minorities. The discussed alternate approaches to increasing diversity in education, though, would make admissions at any type of institution, even at the more selective ones, more at reach to deserving students from any background. Loor 7 Works Cited Anderson, James D. “Past Discrimination and Diversity: A Historical Context for Understanding Race and Affirmative Action.” The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 76, no. 3, 2007, pp. 204–215. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40034565. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022. Barger, Robert N., and Josephine C. Barger. “A Workable Strategy for Affirmative Action”. Apr. 1983. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED231262&site=eho st-live. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022. Doucette, Brenda, et al. “The Perceptions of Culturally Diverse Graduate Students on Multicultural Education: Implication for Inclusion and Diversity Awareness in Higher Education.” European Journal of Educational Research, vol. 10, no. 3, Jan. 2021, pp. 1259–73. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1307613&site=eh ost-live. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022. Hill, Catharine B. “An Alternative Approach to Affirmative Action.” Time for New Approach to Affirmative Action Debate (Opinion), Inside Higher Ed, 10 Oct. 2022, https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2022/10/10/time-new-approach-affir mative-action-debate-opinion. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022. Loor 8 Liptak, Adam. “Supreme Court Seems Ready to Throw out Race-Based College Admissions.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 31 Oct. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/us/supreme-court-harvard-unc-affirmative-action.h tml. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022. McGurn, William. “Opinion | Affirmative Action Exposes the Secret Meaning of Equity.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 31 Oct. 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/equity-asian-american-discrimination-racism-affirmative-ac tion-supreme-court-students-fair-admissions-harvard-unc-11667247678. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022. Totenberg, Nina. “Can Race Play a Role in College Admissions? The Supreme Court Hears the Arguments.” OPB, NPR, 31 Oct. 2022, https://www.opb.org/article/2022/10/31/can-race-play-a-role-in-college-admissions-the-s upreme-court-hears-the-arguments/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022.
