Affirmative Action: Improvement On College Campuses

Affirmative Action has become one of the most controversial issues regarding college admissions. It is an issue that exposes profiling to its highest extent. Race, gender and income now become vital factors in education opportunities. Affirmative Action is the procedure that is used as a criteria in admissions that will increase the points a college applicant receives on their application evaluation based on the previous factors. Whether race should be considered in the admission of a college applicant, is without a doubt a must in all states. Affirmative Action definitely will improve the opportunities of a minority student applying at a university but it will not be the deciding factor. When

Politically speaking, the United States is a country founded on the principles of equality, one that strives to ensure that all its citizens are treated equally and have equal opportunities. Despite all of this, the United States is not predicated on equal outcomes and, as such, some people will naturally rise while others fall. To some, this may seem unfair, but the truth is that, guaranteeing equal outcomes for all people, would severely undermine the foundation on which the United States was built while also threatening its democracy since, to guarantee equal outcomes, some overriding governmental body would have to take the necessary steps to do so. Since affirmative action is a step toward guaranteeing equal outcomes – even when these outcomes should not be equal – it should be prohibited from having any place in the college admissions process. Instead, there should be more emphasis on guaranteeing equal opportunity, and this can be done by “strengthening public education…we must make certain that every child in public school can learn as much and go as far as his or her talents permit” (Summer, 2012, p. 3). Strengthening public education so that the standards are higher and there is a more rigorous curriculum would lift everybody up equally, and would therefore be more in step with American’s democratic ideals than admitting students into college simply based on

Affirmative action in college admissions continues to be heatedly debated. In 2003, the Supreme Court had ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that diversity was a compelling interest for colleges to use race in admissions. In the amicus brief that the American Sociological Association et al. provided to the Supreme Court, sociological evidence was presented to elucidate the value of affirmative action. Yet in 2006, Proposal 2 was passed in Michigan to ban affirmative action in public education (Levitsky). Based on the information in the amicus brief, the correlation between race and socioeconomic status of the minorities, and the negative effects of banning affirmative action, admissions officers at the University of Michigan should consider

Is affirmative action in higher education needed? This question provokes a myriad of emotions. Is affirmative action antiquated and unneeded in 21st century America? Or are the racial boundaries of this country’s ancestors still in effect? America’s Declaration of Independence states, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” yet quotas, check marks, and plus factors give minority students advantages in the admission processes of the country’s universities and colleges (NARA).

The various alternative forms of Affirmative Action all have received national attention. Yet, the country is divided on all of these issues, specifically how university admissions should assess issues of merit and diversity against national fundamental issues of diversity and fairness.

In the 1960s when minorities and whites were equal according to the constitution but unequal in reality, a program was needed to level the playing field. Thus the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was created and prohibited discrimination. It marked the beginning of a debate that has been going on for nearly a half of a century. Affirmative action needs to be reevaluated in educational settings in light of current needs.

According to the Washington Post, UC has admitted more Latino applicants than non-Hispanic whites to its freshman class this year. The Washington Post also states that forty percent of its students are the first in their generation to attend college and four out of ten students come from poor families. The ban on affirmative action seems to be working seamlessly here; however, it is not. This year, UC has admitted 22,000 Asian American, 17,000 Hispanic/Latino, 16,000 non-Hispanic whites, and 2,500 African Americans according to the Washington Post. The diversity on campus is extremely low. There are only 2,500 African American and 22,000 Asian Americans. Because affirmative action increases diversity on campus, many colleges and universities do not want to abolish such a program. Therefore, they are looking for other ways to maintain diversity without violating the constitution.

I think affirmative action was fair at its inception under Lynden B. Johnson, and throughout the remainder of the 20th century, but I don’t feel it’s fair in society today.

In the mid-1900s, discrimination and segregation movements were rampant throughout America. African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities were often denied jobs based on the color of their skin alone. Many minorities were excluded from colleges and found themselves unable to obtain a proper education. In order to combat such discriminatory and racist actions, the Civil Rights Movement enacted a program to prevent the denial of students into universities because of unfair factors such as race, ethnicity, background, etc. This program is called affirmative action. Through affirmative action, the Civil Rights Movement aimed to help historically disadvantaged people gain acceptance to institutions for higher education. However, their plan to increase the representation of minorities in universities utilized the very practice it sought to destroy: discrimination.

Affirmative Action has been around for many decades from around the 1940s. Although it has not always been called affirmative action, the official title was not introduced until the 1960s. Back then affirmative action was more known as segregation or discrimination in the workplace or there lack of. The women and people of color were the targets of discrimination, which several presidents tried to correct for equality.

Affirmative Action admission policies have been highly criticized since their enactment in the 1960’s. Conservatives see affirmative action as an unfair tool for underachieving minority students rather than a policy to correct past racial inequalities and promote a diverse learning environment. This ideology of affirmative action is portrayed in Jim Huber’s political cartoon, number 1 on the list. Penned for a conservative audience, Huber’s political cartoon argues against affirmative action by suggesting that affirmative action does not promote hard work, but instead gives unequal advantages to minority students.

A journey the majority of high school students experience is researching potential colleges. It was during this search that I was introduced to the concept of affirmative action, and I became interested in how it could affect my acceptance to college. On one hand, I was ecstatic because being a minority could give me an advantage when applying to universities. However, I also wanted to receive the acceptance based on my merit not my skin color. Affirmation action, particularly in college admissions, has been experiencing major criticism regarding its fairness and effectiveness. My stance on this subject is somewhat supporting both sides. I believe that affirmative action is needed

Affirmative Action is a very hot topic in the college and political world. There are very mixed feelings on Affirmative Action. I hope to further explain my views in this paper and help you to understand Affirmative Action.

On April 1, 2013 on a case was brought up in the United States Supreme Court about the course of affirmative action programs to reshape or reaffirm it. African-American students at the university at the core of the case say it is crucial that their school’s admissions practices remain intact of this program. By this time the court is expected to rule in its current term on a case involving a race-conscious admissions policy at the University of Texas at Austin, where there was a white female student insists that she was passed over for acceptance at the university’s graduate school because of its policy of promoting applicants who are African-American, Latino and Asian. If the university loses the case and the admissions policy is struck down,

Since the election of President Barack Obama, many people have adopted the idea that the nation has progressed and there are even some people who trust that it is now time to halt school, housing, and employment affirmative action policies. Sadly though, many people are unaware of the fact that there has been an upsurge in hate crimes and racial profiling. Because of this, there is a chasm between black and white success in schools, career prospects, housing, and quality of health care (Sadler 1140-1141). But in recent years, affirmative action has been questioned. Michigan, Washington, California and Florida have outlawed affirmative action policies, and Colorado and Nebraska have pushed for anti-affirmative efforts (Sadler 1156).