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University of Texas (U.T) & u.S. Supreme Court Affirmitive Action

In the UT case of affirmative action, The U.S. Supreme court actually thinks that under certain circumstances “race” can be used as a determining factor for the purpose of admissions without it being “bias” discrimination.  (Unbelievable) The attorney presenting the case stated that the “uncorralled” or “unchecked” use of “race” for admissions is indeed “bias” discrimination that violates students right to equal protection under the law.(The fourteenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution), and should not be used by the university to promote its’ own agenda such as graduation rate, etc., whatever the university’s priorities may be.  

I say that “any” use of race, religion, culture, heritage, etc, that has nothing to do with a person I.Q., personal ability, passion, preferences, should be used in “any” situation such as college admission, employment, or any decision making process used to fill a position, and if the U.S. Supreme Court simply insisted on the use of race, etc, as a factor, it should be used “only” as a last resort where all applicants are equally qualified across the board, with no greater significant determining eligibility and to use it to only fill an opening that is lacking in numbers in such arenas of race, religion, culture, heritage, etc. in an attempt to be fair to all people.

COMMENTS

  • Viet71

    Race should never be a factor in my opinion.

    If everyone in the class of applicants is equally qualified, and the class is too large, use a computer or coin toss or other method to make random selections.

  • Dave_A

    A simple solution to bias-free admissions:

    Control number-based forms…

    All forms should be filed online, with the actual demographics/name/etc of the prospective student stored in a separate database that admissions decision-makers have no access to.

    If there’s an essay, give explicit instructions that it is to be written in formal English with no slang & no references to activities or organizations that might indicate the applicant’s gender, race, nationality, religeon, etc…

    Since the decision would be made abjectly blindly, with no possibility of knowing what ‘groups’ the applicant was part of, it would be perfectly fair.

    The issue, for UT, is that they are not trying to be perfectly fair, they are trying to ‘ensure a diverse campus community’ regardless of qualification.