Affirmative Action: A tool for creating diversity, or a threat to fairness in college admissions

1
Affirmative ActionA tool for creating
diversity,or a threat to fairness in college
admissions?

• By
• Meredith Drottar, Rob Lantzy, Kay Miller, Tarmim
  Monjur, and Danielle Shuster

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Part I. What is affirmative action?

• In its simplest form, it is positive steps taken
  to increase the representation of women and
  minorities in areas of employment, education, and
  business from which they have been historically
  excluded.
• It may also involve preferential selection of
  minorities and women, which is more controversial.

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Motivations of Affirmative ActionRedressing
past injustices

• Numerus clausus and similar policies
  intentionally minimized womens and minorities
  access to higher education.
• Jews and African-Americans strongly affected
• Women kept out of male colleges until 60s and
  70s
• Hispanics and Native Americans also restricted

Brandeis University was founded in 1948 in
response to the Jewish quotas at many
universities.
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Motivations of Affirmative ActionCreating
diversity on campus

• Diversity for its own sake, not as a compensation
  to formerly mistreated minority groups
• This motivation is the focus of this presentation

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Disadvantages of a segregated education

• Homogeneity
• Concentrated poverty, polarized politics
• Lack of common ground
• Hardening of stereotypes
• Few opportunities for dialogue outside of
  education

Yale Medical Class of 1941
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The benefits of diversity

• Broadened experience
• Benefit to everyone, minority or not
• Forming an authentic self, not copying ones
  parents

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Part II.Controversies of affirmative action
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Legal challenges

• Bakke v. California Regents (1978)
• An ambiguous result
• Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)
• A defeat for extreme affirmative action
• Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)
• A partial victory for moderate affirmative action

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Survey of High School Students

• 245 total students 201 white 17 black 10
  Hispanic 4 Asian and 10 mixed or other.
• Survey taken at Liberty High School in Bealton
  Virginia.
• Mostly of 11th graders (96 total) and 12th
  graders (132 total) (although some 10th graders
  (17 total) were present).

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Quantitative results

• 170 out of 245 students stated that they did not
  agree with affirmative action and 71 said that
  they agree. However, of those 245, 142 did not
  know what it was when they answered!
• 26 out of the 45 minority students said that they
  agree, and 16 did not agree. Again, only 22 of
  the 45 knew what it was!

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Graphs of Survey

• 1 is white
• 2 is black
• 3 is Hispanic
• 4 is Asian
• 5 is other/ mixed

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Another Graph

• 1 is whether they agree or disagree
• 2 is whether they knew what it was or not before.

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Comments From High School Students

• I think that it is a great idea to have a
  diverse college, but giving special advantages to
  applicants just because they are part of a
  minority is wrong Miles Rice (junior).
• I think that Affirmative Action is a smart and
  fair system. It gives a certain group and race a
  better chance to get into college. Josh
  Panteloglous (Senior).
• I dont agree with Affirmative Action because
  its uncalled for. The United States has changed
  dramatically over the past centuries Lucky
  Uddin (junior).

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Conclusions

• Few students are aware of affirmative action
• Those who are aware do not entirely understand it
• Agree in principle, disagree in practice

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Defenses and criticisms of affirmative action
Arguments for and against affirmative action as a
means to fairly create positive diversity on
campus
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Defense 1 Students from different backgrounds
may have access to different levels of education,
so grades may be biased in favor of students from
wealthy, advantaged backgrounds. Colleges must
take this into account in order to truly be fair
to applicants.
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Defense 2 Schools have an obligation to create
a positive and diverse learning environment. If
they do not, it is a disservice to all students,
not merely those who have been admitted because
of affirmative action programs.
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Defense 3 Past attempts to impose quotas on
"overrepresented" groups, as by numerus clausus
and Jewish quotas, have been harmful.
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Our Conclusions

• Diversity in higher education is beneficial.
• We do not think it is being pursued properly.

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Our recommendations

• Begin earlier in the process
• Favoring minorities only late in the process
  creates resentment.
• Act multilaterally
• Universities cannot solve the problem by
  themselves.
• Diversify the categories

Schools should try to encourage diversity and
eliminate racial and ethnic divisions as early as
possible in the educational process.
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Questions for discussion

• What are the disadvantages and advantages of lack
  of diversity in schools that are segregated,
  either officially or unofficially (i.e. due to
  location or lack of funding)?
• How has affirmative action changed over the
  years? How has the importance changed?
• Do you think it would be effective for promoting
  diversity if college applications did not ask
  that the applicant specify their race/ethnicity?

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Citations

• "Affirmative Action." Stanford Encyclopedia of
  Philosophy. 4 Mar.-Apr. 2005. Stanford
  University. 17 Sept. 2006 lthttp//plato.stanford.
  edu/entries/affirmative-action/gt.
• Ambrose, Susan A., ed. The Benefits of Diversity
  for Education At Carnegie Mellon. President's
  Diversity Advisory Council, Carnegie Mellon U.,
  Pittsburgh, 2004. 16 Sept.-Oct. 2006
  lthttp//hr.web.cmu.edu/drg/overview/BenefitsOfDiv
  ersity.pdfgt.
• Gurin, Patricia, and Thomas Sugrue. The
  Compelling Need for Diversity in Higher
  Education. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor,
  1999. 17 Sept. 2006 lthttp//vpcomm.umich.edu/admi
  ssions/research/gt. 
• Gurin, Patricia, Eric L. Dey, Sylvia Hurtado, and
  Gerald Gurin. "Diversity and Higher Education
  Theory and Impact on Educational Outcomes."
  Harvard Educational Review. 2002. Harvard
  University. 17 Sept. 2006 lthttp//gseweb.harvard.
  edu/hepg/gurin.htmlgt.
• Karabel, Jerome. The Chosen The Hidden History
  of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and
  Princeton, Houghton Mifflin, 2005
• Miller, L. Scott. Exploring High Academic
  Performance The Case of Latinos in Higher
  Education. The Journal of Hispanic Higher
  Education, July 2005 4 252-271
• Schmidt, Peter. Debating the Benefits of
  Affirmative Action Racial Diversity in Public
  College Admissions. The Chronicle of Higher
  Education, May 2001.

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Citations Continued

• Liberty High School Students grades 10th through
  12th.
• George Mason Center for Diversity retrieved on
  September 25, 2006, http//www.gmu.edu/vcenter/mas
  onfacts/