“When is a public university’s student body diverse enough? When it has a ‘critical mass’ of minority students — that is, enough to ‘assure educational benefits deriving from diversity,’ the court said.”

Critical mass? Is that like a self-sustaining Eucharist rite at the Catholic Church? Or maybe they mean people have to think outside the box in order to gain synergy so that an action item does not drink the Kool Aid and thereafter be viewed as having no more value than lipstick on a pig.

That the ruling is to ‘assure educational benefits deriving from diversity,’ is equally as obfuscating, and hints of being stereotypical.

However one feels about this ruling is beyond my discussion. I am not even an English professor and I cringe at the way they try to logically work through a problem.

I can appreciate the vague structure of federal laws sent to states for clarification, but based on these statements (and they may be anecdotal) I think the court gave the impression of deciding on a matter but actually returned the complaint back to the sender, unopened.

I can understand why lawyers have problems with Latin but, based on this sample, it appears that more than one Justice slept thought Comp 100.

You had m,e until you introduced this straw man. Race-[based admission policies are based on the belief that race per se does not signify a difference in ability, but that it may have deprived an applicant of full educational opportunity. Only a realist will understand that uniform standards will exclude worthy candidates who have been deprived of that opportunity.

All of which is irrelevant to the original discussion, which was about the idea that having a diverse student body was valuable as a part of the education of all students.

Whether someone’s ancestors were slaves, slave owners, or none of the above, is patently irrelevant. Wrongdoing is not hereditary. Neither is victimhood. My grandmother was the victim of rape. Does that make me a victim of rape as well? Should the grandchildren of her rapist be required to bow and scrape before me? Should they be required to give up a job or a placement at a good school to me or other members of my family?

In truth, everyone alive is the descendant of slaves. It doesn’t matter which continent your heritage can be traced to either. Slavery has existed in every corner of the world at one time or another. It is only in modern times that it has been largely (but not completely) eradicated.

Race based discrimination is wrong. It doesn’t matter which racial group is given preferential treatment and which group gets the short end of the stick. It is wrong in all its forms. It is wrong when a white person is given a job on the basis of their skin color. It is wrong when a black person is given a job on the basis of their skin color. It is wrong when Asian students or Jewish students are held to a higher standard in terms of their grades or SAT scores when applying to a university. It is wrong when standards are lowered for black or latino students.

Race based admissions policies are inherently racist. This can be seen in the rationale used to justify them. Only someone who believes that individuals from certain races are inferior to individuals from other races would suggest that race based admissions processes must be employed to ensure that the supposedly inferior races are represented in sufficient numbers. Only a racist would believe that uniform standards would exclude members of certain races.

It is the condescending sort of racism that says to those it is directed against: “I know you’re not strong enough, smart enough, or of good enough character to succeed, so I’m going to be nice and give you a pass just to show much sympathy I have for people like you.” It is KKK with good manners racism. It does a vast disservice to everyone of every creed and color who succeeded because they possessed the talent and determination to achieve their goals without special treatment.

Of course using skin color is wrong since some people might be white but come from countries where there ancestors were slaves and other people might be black but could be coming from very wealthy families in Africa.

Discrimination against people of European descent is so common now, it seems the government takes a course on a slow extermination of White people.

White people should try to get a Homeland for themselves, to stop this ongoing genocide and suppression. Jews could get a Jewish Homeland (Israel). European Americans should follow their example and create a White People Homeland, to stop such discrimination and genocide.

These days it seems practically impossible to have any organization on campus, which would stand for the interests of European Americans. Others races get such organization routinely, and even get funding from colleges and universities. If this is not racism, then what racism is?

The Pell grants/loans are sent directly to the school and applied to a students tuition costs. If a student receiving Financial aid drops a course(s) and his/her credit hours fall below Full-time student status, Financial services is notified. The student should get credited an amount that he or she paid BUT that student does not get one cent of the “financial aid” money. In fact this year in my department one student who qualified for financial aid dropped out of a required course and fell below 9 credit hours, making her status part-time. She tried to keep her FT status (financial aid) by taking a non related course and was denied future Financial aid.

I think this is off the point of discussion about if race should be a determination for admission.

I teach at a college and it seems that we recruit/accept many students who don’t really want an education. Many of our students quit coming to class after they receive their pell grant check refunds/loans/etc.

Why can’t we look at each perspective student’s application without looking at their color?
I think it should only be based on grades, ACT scores, etc.

Myt background is Irish-Italian and I’m a mother of part African children. I want them to be judged, especially by Higher Ed, by their character, experiences, how they resolved their issues/mistakes, what they have offered to their community, volunteerism, and by their achievement in school and their command over communication and experience in public speaking.

I work at an esteemed private liberal arts college with a thrust, almost with hubris, toward diversity. I live day by day watching what happens when students are chosen to bring the numbers up. They feel segregated, thrust into small “workshops” with black-only students for separate Orientations. The anger that has come out of our students simmers beneath the quite waters of a school constantly pushing the numbers higher and higher. These students feel that they should not be treated any differently than their peers, and every day that are reminded that they are differently treated then their peers.

I think all of us who care for one side or the other on this hot topic have been impacted one way or another. I’m either impacted or witness every day of my life what it is like to be judged by race. We are all inherently racist. And the ones who livid in reading that comment, are the ones who judge without cognizance of their own thoughts and actions.

Once higher ed does more to attract diversity based on future promise and past experience, not race, the institutions will see that their body of students will become diverse.

The other side of that is the high schools from which diversity shall come. That’s a tough one to just answer in a brief response here. Many our nation’s poor school districts do not have the experience or knowledge to provide the support necessary to take children under their wing and coach them through school, studies, communication, volunteerism, and into higher ed. Parents must take a large chunk of that role. It’s complicated, though, and fodder for another discussion.

Sound good?

Race should not be a consideration for college admission –If a student has good grades, no matter who they are, there will be opportunities for them to proceed to college. Students (no matter background or ethnicity) from the start of High school need to be encouraged to work as hard as possible on their education.

Every college has different standards for admission – starting with GPA, SAT and or ACT scores. Are we going to argue that is discriminating against students too??

“When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

It is time stop making excuses and to start holding individuals accountable no matter what their situation. Here is some more of the president’s great speech to school children:

“Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.”

“I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.”

I think this says it all.

BUT if I am a minority born to poorer family (look at stats on birthrates VS income level (http://www.census.gov/) which most are. I then will more than likely go to a lower income school and receive a mediocre education (because of low grad rates thus less students school receive less public funding) So even if I am a good student in that school my scores ACT or SAT might not be as good as another school (higher income/privates/charter….mostly Caucasian dominated)

So should race be a factor…yes it should because diversity is important an we as admissions folks understand that not everyone starts the race on the same line!!!

At the same time our government/schools/us as citizens should be thinking of creative ways to help support students whatever race to achieve. Is admitting based on race the final answer…no, but for now until American society is equal in everyway it will be!

When it comes to Higher Ed, I feel all individuals that want to go to college should be considered based on their merits. Period. It should absolutely be about working hard and accountability. It would be an interesting study to see the results of college admissions if the students were assigned a number instead of giving their names – then schools could be objective in determining who to accept.

I also feel that we need to examine how we can improve schools for students from all areas of our country. I think the students are all capable of being successful, but our educational system needs to be improved. Public school education should not discount your ability to move on to Higher Ed.

For the white majority, the presence of Affirmative Action policies reinforces the racist notion of incapable minorities by giving the notion the weight of validity backed by the government; if it’s Federal policy then it must be so. For the black “beneficiary” of Affirmative Action efforts, he must forever wonder if he truly achieved what he achieved on his own merits, or if he was given an easier time of it; furthermore, he must at some level recognize and deeply resent the underlying assumption that he really couldn’t have managed on his own without the kindly hand of Federal intervention just because he’s black.

Maybe the playing field is level and maybe it isn’t. But until such unutterably improbable future time in which there are no prejudices and biases, let us not pretend that shifting the balance in the the opposite direction is a just or desirable endeavor. A “fair” society would say “Ok, you had your turn on top, now it’s these other folks’ turn to be on top” (or to put it another way, it’s merely a color reversal of Jim Crow, but I hesitate to say that as it might just be too inflammatory).

A truly JUST society on the other hand, would say, “We are giving everybody the same chance, and nobody gets preferential treatment.” I don’t want to ignore the fact that the deck was stacked against minorities (particularly, given the practice of slavery, the blacks) in the past; but while acknowledging that the nation was wrong let us not fulfill some misbegotten notion that we must in compensation stack the deck in the other direction.

And this is where MLK was in error, because the Black man is not 300 years behind the white man. He is equal in every way. We have a black president. Blacks have **MORE** opportunities than whites for success because of scholarships and admission policies such as the one mentioned here.

What happens if a University assigns extra admissions weighting in their review process for Asians and Whites to the detriment of Blacks? How many lawsuits and media blitzes would be hurled into action against such an organization? You see, if you cannot guarantee equal application of laws, this society will continue to break down. Promise.

If we cannot treat individuals equally, race warfare will continue to get worse. I know individuals who received merit-based scholarships from **state-funded** institutions of higher learning (because I work in one) when there were vastly more qualified individuals who were not the same minority they were. As a result, taxpayer money is funnelled to a race, not to a person strictly based on merit.

Don’t worry, though; our President will make sure that minorities are admitted more easily into medical schools and placed in residencies more easily than their white/caucasian counterparts through incentives to Medical Schools. As he said himself, “Reparations do not go far enough.” Get ready to pay for something (past slavery) you don’t support, didn’t do, your family likely didn’t do (since slaveowners were a significant minority). The President will see that entitlements are expanded based on race, and we will continue to have more heated race relations in this country as a form of reverse discrimination is practiced.

As two young black men yelled at my friend (white) in my city, “It’s our time now. You had your time.”

What gets lost is that college is not a right and no one is entitled to it. It is not compulsory and it is not for everyone. If a high school student does not prepare themselves for college they should not be accepted over someone else who has. It does not matter if they are black, white, purple or green. If one is not prepared to meet the rigorous demands college presents then it is a disservice to the student to place them there before they are ready. It is also disservice to those students who were well prepared, but who were cut out though they could have done well if given the chance.

We would be better off puting our efforts into helping minority students become better prepared for college in the first place so that this isn’t an issue. Instead of looking at college enrollment practices lets look at early education, middle schools, and high schools. We need to strengthen their foundation in education so that this becomes a non-issue.

2. If race is not an issue and people talk about admission should based on good grade and academic standing. Then, how come a invisible minority who have top grade and academic high standard and denied for admission? Because invisible minority has no representation and has no say and because the invisible minorities are insignificant in population. Who cares?

There is nothing wrong with the universities or college. It is the people who manage it. It is the people who want to have control over the others. It is people who want to have power. It is about people cannot accept others who are different from them. It is people do not accept or believe people who are not their type of skin better then them. Therefore, politic comes into play. People can say or put in writing anything they want to make things look good, but deep in, things just go the opposite: hidden agenda, minipulation of race card, distortion, and deniel.