College Admissions Might Soon Ditch Affirmative Action As Supreme Court Revisits Issue

Affirmative action in college admissions have twice been challenged and upheld at the Supreme Court level but the third time might be a charm for opponents of the practice since Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (5-4 decision in 2003) has since been replaced with the more conservative Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

The new court case was filed by a University of Texas applicant who claims that they were denied admissions even though their grades were better then applicants who were accepted into the University because of their race.

The Supreme Court will revisit the 2003 decision during the October term to determine if race should remain a factor in admission decisions.

In the meantime the Obama administration has continued to support the courts 2003 admissions policy which takes race into consideration to ensure campus diversity.

The issue of race based admissions regardless of the Supreme Courts 2003 ruling has remained largely a state issue, for example California does not allow race to be taken into consideration when choosing the best students for University admissions.In the case of the Texas lawsuit university prospect Abigail Noel Fisher was placed into a pool of applicants in which race is considered along with other factors such as leadership qualities, test scores, work experience and other factors. The University of Texas currently provides admission for the top 10 percent of students in Texas high schools before opening up the applicant process based on race and other factors.

While Fisher was eventually accepted to Louisiana University and is close to earning a degree her lawyer Bert Rein says UT’s use of a race-neutral policy went “far beyond” helping minority students gain admission to the university.

With the United States closer to no longer having a “majority race” the idea of affirmative action has lost much ground, I personally feel that a student should be admitted based on their grades and then their other notable achievements, plain and simple.

Do you think affirmative action should be thrown out the window and Universities should focus on what matters, the academic achievements of high school students?

You can follow the case under Fisher v. University of Texas.