The Supreme Court begins deliberations today on the case of Fisher v. Texas, and in the next few days will make a ruling that will have dramatic ramifications for affirmative action policies in U.S. public universities.
Many experts on the Supreme Court have predicted that the Court will reverse public universities' current right, a right confirmed in the 2003 Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger, to take a candidate's race into account as one of many factors in the admissions process. Affirmative action is currently used to ensure a higher level of diversity in student bodies. As the majority decision in the Grutter v. Bollinger case phrased it, taking race into account in admissions furthers a "compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body."
This compelling interest is in danger this week, when eight Supreme Court judges -- Justice Elena Kagan has chosen to recuse herself -- will hear the case of Abigail Fisher, a recent graduate of Louisiana State University. Fisher took her case to court in 2008 when she was denied acceptance to University of Texas at Austin (UT) on the basis, according to her, that she was white and therefore not properly safeguarded under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Though UT fills most of its student body with students in the top 10 percent of their high school classes -- these students gain automatic admission to the Texas public university of their choosing -- the rest of the student body is chosen by administrators looking at a holistic "personal achievement index" in which race has been one of many factors since the 2003 Supreme Court ruling.
The end of affirmative action would have dire consequences for minorities in America as well as for the quality of education at public universities. Marginalized racial groups face a cyclical problem in which one generation's inability to get ahead in the education world makes going to college just as unattainable, or less attainable, for later generations as it was for those previous.
Affirmative action policies have seen modest and important successes in the places where they have been implemented. According to its Office of Information Management and Analysis, UT's fall 2011 enrollment consisted of 20 percent Hispanic students and approximately five percent African American students. Though these numbers appear small, the number of minority students at UT was radically smaller in the years before affirmative action was re-implemented. Adding these minority students to the class helps to reverse generations of unequal access to education, works to reduce the consequent achievement gap and promotes an exchange of ideas and perspectives that only a student body with students of diverse backgrounds can achieve.
With this in mind, we feel that the current Supreme Court should uphold the ruling of the 2003 Court and continue to allow universities the right to include race as one of many factors in the admissions process.
