Proposal for an Admission Policy

An increasing debate in the United States regarding higher education

Are universities culturally diverse enough, and what is the safest way to ensure racial division in a college? The use of race as a consideration in college admissions provides an answer to the issue posed. Colleges can and do use color as an entrance criterion to meet a secret limit for some races – such as African Americans, Latino/as, Native Americans, White/Caucasian, and so on. Supporters of this racially-based admission believe that race is being underrepresented in the tiers of higher education while those against racially based admissions claim that colleges need to only take into account individual’s merits and accomplishments during admissions. In my opinion, race is not supposed to be a factor in admissions. Colleges need to do away with the race-conscious policies for admissions, mainly because it brings about what is referred to as reverse discrimination. This paper recommends the abolition of racial preference in admissions policies in the University of Pittsburgh.

Colleges’ efforts to diversify their students’ populations

Colleges have made various efforts to diversify their students’ populations, but their efforts have been found to bring about reverse discrimination. Functionalists would state that colleges have had a difficult time weaving race as a factor into their admissions while adhering to decisions by Supreme Court. The High Court has had rulings that are confusing and controversial when dealing with race in regards to college admission. There also are some general guidelines laid down by the rulings. For instance, in the cases, pictured by Gratz Bollinger and Grutter Bollinger, the Court gave colleges the right to apply race as an admission factor. The interpretation of a law rule in both cases was that colleges can use race as a factor in college admissions but not as the determinant factor. The courts also mentioned that the issue of race as a factor must be narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling interest in the university and hence some sense of social stability.

Race-based admission factors as a form of racial discrimination

Despite the abovementioned rulings, organizations such as the Center for Equal Opportunity still consider race-based admission factors to be a form of racial discrimination (Whitman et al., 31). Such types of admissions are racially discriminating for the admission policies, and may still deny or overlook a student based on his or her skin tone. For example, if a university has too many Latino/as and White students, it may overlook their applications in favor of an African-American applicant who has less merit than the Latino/as and White applicants based on the skin tone of the African American applicant.

The conflict with the ideals and beliefs of the United States

The ideals and beliefs of the United States conflict with the preferential treatment administered through racially based admissions. The United States are built upon the idea of Equality of Opportunity whereby everybody has the same chance to succeed if they apply for any given vacancy. Equal opportunities for education, or Equality of Educational Opportunity (EEO), are defined as the equal access for all young adults regardless of gender or race. Recently, the belief that there should also be equality of outcomes has encroached on the concept of EEO. Equality of Results was not an idea that was indulged in the founding of the United States, nor should it be endorsed now. According to Carl Cohen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, claims that race preference is the policy of giving special advantages to the members of certain minorities simply on the ground that they are members of the ethnic groups, being a representative of which is regarded to be unjust. Racial preference gives merit to certain races while taking opportunities away from others. At a fundamental level, racial preference comes down to a physical attribute of an individual being given priority over another individual’s actual accomplishments. Such ignorance goes against the equality and fairness established in the United States (Antonovics et al., 295-322).

The consequences of preferential treatment

According to American journalist Stuart Taylor Jr., most students admitted through racial preferences have failure and dropout rates that are disproportionately higher than their classmates. Most of these students are at the bottom of their class, and only a few of them gain entry to elite professional schools based on their merit alone. That is not to say that every preferentially admitted student fails, for there are plenty of minorities that are admitted through race-conscious policies that graduate. Unfortunately, a disproportionately larger amount of such students fails and or drop out, as they are not always prepared for the challenges of college. A preferential treatment of a kind is simply a very sweet, indulgent trap that many minorities spring (Banks 3-8).

Conclusion

In the University of Pittsburgh, racial discrimination issue needs to be addressed before it becomes deeply rooted. The school should come up with some strategies to try and curb the issue for instance programs like automatic admissions for academically excelling students have had success with increasing diversity or the minority population without using the direct approach of the race-conscious policy for admission. Minorities admitted through this program have merit and can and excel just as their majority counterparts do. The minorities’ representatives should be evaluated on intellect, not their race. Individual merit and accomplishment qualify of such students, who show no preference, for admission will benefit them significantly.

Works Cited

Antonovics, Kate, and Ben Backes. “The Effect of Banning Affirmative Action on College Admissions Policies and Student Quality.” Journal of Human Resources (49.2) Spring 2014: 295-322.

Banks, James A. Cultural Diversity and Education. Routledge 3 April 2015: 3-8.

Whitman, Leanna L., and Michael Hayes. “Lou Pollak: The Road to v. Brown.Board of Education and Beyond.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (158.1) 1 March 2014: 31-35.