More than affirmative action needed
It’s been a busy season for the Supreme Court, with recent decisions sparking celebrations among the underinsured and rainbow-themed parties.
Receiving less fanfare was a decision last Monday by the court to rehear a Texas-based case on affirmative action.
The justices heard the case, Fisher v. University of Texas at
Austin, two years ago, ruling that universities may use race as a factor in admissions to achieve a diverse student body but should employ other “workable, raceneutral alternatives,” if they are available. The case was kicked down to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with UT-Austin and allowed the university to continue its affirmative action policy.
The fact that the Supreme Court is now rehearing the case is a sign that this issue could be more narrowly interpreted.
That’s potentially good news for people like Abigail Fisher, the plaintiff, who was denied admission to the university in 2008, despite having a 3.6 gradepoint average and scoring 1180 on the SAT. Fisher, who is white, claims she was passed over for minority students with lesser academic credentials. Fisher went on to graduate from Louisiana State University in 2012 but is continuing the case on principle.
Using race in university admissions is unconstitutional and demeans minority students who have worked hard to try to get into the institutions, says Edward Blum, president of the Project on Fair Representation, which is providing Fisher’s legal counsel. Lowering the bar for some people inevitably means raising it for others, he says.
“It’s polarizing and demeaning and it serves no purpose,” Blum told me. A fairer approach, he says, is to set aside slots for students from financially disadvantaged families — of all races, including white.
Others agree with him. At least eight states have passed laws restricting affirmative action since 1996, according to the Pew Research Center.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Hispanics are enrolling in colleges. From 1996 to 2012, college enrollment among Hispanics ages 18 to 24 more than tripled (a 240% increase), outpacing increases among blacks (72%) and whites (12%), according to Pew. All this seems to suggest less affirmative action is needed. But although Latinos are getting into college at impressive rates, an astonishingly low percentage are obtaining four-year degrees: Hispanic students account for just 9% of young adults (ages 25 to 29) with a bachelor’s degree, compared with 69% for white students.
Two decades ago, I was one of those Latino students who found himself thrust onto a four-year university campus — the first of my immediate family to do so. I’m first-generation Cuban-American. My English was fine by the time I got to the University of Florida, but there were days I still felt my cultural upbringing and background were oceans removed from my Anglo classmates. I nearly quit several times. Affirmation action didn’t help get me into UF, but I did secure minority scholarships and benefited from internship-place- ment programs that helped propel my career. Not only did those programs give me a chance to meet other minority students, they connected me with mentors who were invaluable in helping me navigate the academic landscape. Without them, I wouldn’t have made it.
“Affirmative action can help in raising some of these numbers by opening doors at top-tier institutions,” says Mark Hugo Lopez, director of Hispanic Research at Pew.
Lopez, 48, enrolled at the University of California-Berkeley in the 1980s and excelled. But when it came time to consider a graduate degree, no one from his family could offer usable advice. “Mi hijo,” his father told him then, “I think you should be a professor.” Instead, Lopez pursued a doctorate in economics at Princeton and now heads one of the more influential research wings at Pew.
But it was a summer program at UC-Berkeley for minority students that helped him map out his path. “If I hadn’t had that experience, I wouldn’t even consider applying to a top-notch school,” he said.
As justices and scholars debate affirmative action, higher ed leaders should seriously ponder not just how to get more minority students on their campuses — but how to keep them there.