White House Pushes For Weighing Race In Admissions

The New York Times:

The Obama administration on Friday urged colleges and universities to get creative in improving racial diversity at their campuses, throwing out a Bush-era interpretation of recent Supreme Court rulings that limited affirmative action in admissions.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[erehwon2]

11:16 AM on 01/13/2012

Quota systems are inherently unfair and counterproductive. College applicants should be viewed as individuals and their merits evaluated accordingly. A minority applicant who comes from a middle- or upper middle class background should not be accepted with low test scores just because he is a minority. Likewise, a white applicant from a disadvantaged background should not be denied admission with such lower test scores because he is white.

While it is desirable to increase diversity on our college campuses, advantages should not be afforded to individuals who don't need the boost and denied those who do based on race alone.

[adamben]

09:47 AM on 01/13/2012

treating affirmative action as a quoto system is only a short-term solution. the original idea was that by allowing "qualified" minority applicants admission to universities that they wouldn't get in because their scores were considered low because of discrimination. then, these graduates would move back to their communities and people within their communities would see that studying would get them into college and a better job and a better life for them and their children and then the low-performing minority majority schools will improve. what happens is that these graduates settle in majority white middle-class neighborhoods and these minority majority districts either don't improve or get worse.

affirmative action is also cheaper than fixing all low performing schools throughout america, regardless of race, but effecting a majority of minorities, but the majority are white. by improving the lives of a few the government washes its hand of actually fixing the inequality (and don't have to spend the billions if not trillions; still cheaper than iraq war); they just benefit a few. and, from my experience, many people benefiting from the "quota"-affirmative action programs are middle-class minorities whose parents have advanced degrees.

[Corpilot]

11:36 PM on 12/05/2011

"Improving Racial Diversity" is really code for "limit opportunities for white men" . If businesses used tactics against non whites Ive seen colleges use against whites there would be an outcry.
How about we let the most qualified into college regardless of race?

[RRoadrunner]

02:37 PM on 12/06/2011

" If businesses used tactics against non whites Ive seen colleges use against whites there would be an outcry."

Why aren't you rich? Sounds like you've seen some $$$$$ run in front of you. Some lawyers will start a suit at the drop of a hat.

[PaulaMV]

10:40 PM on 12/05/2011

If you grow up poor, with parents who never went to college and may have dropped out of high school, and you are smart and ambitious....but don't have access SAT prep classes, tutors, or even a good high school...college admissions should not take that into account? Unfortunately, in the United States, the majority of those in poverty are not Casucasian. Colleges should have the leeway to consider race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in admissions, as well as test scores and grades.

[adamben]

09:48 AM on 01/13/2012

the majority of poor people in america are white, who are on food stamps and other public benefits. a majority of minorities are poor, though.

[PaulaMV]

03:06 PM on 01/13/2012

Get your statistics right: Poverty by Race/Ethnicity (Kaiser Foundation)
United States Percent
White 14%
Black 36%
Hispanic 35%
Other 23%

[MikeDu]

07:24 PM on 12/05/2011

"Affirmative Action" is alive and thriving in American universities. Otherwise those openings reserved for the idiot children of super-rich doners and for NCAA football jocks would go to high-achieving Asian women. Harverd openly admits it reserves a percentage of its seats for undeserving white guys just for the 'diversity'.

[constitutional 1]

11:10 AM on 12/05/2011

Its very simple, you need not like "look" like a minority to apply as a minority.

[AZreb]

07:51 AM on 12/04/2011

"Wiggle room" around the entry to colleges and universities? Way back when (I am 74) you did the work, you studied, you passed the tests to graduate from high school, then took the entrance exams for college and if you passed then you got to attend. It didn't matter what race you were, what your economic background was, what obstacles you overcame - it came down to your abilities and knowledge!

[MacTheBlogger]

08:15 AM on 12/04/2011

F/F. I would only add "effort" to abilities and knowledge, probably before them. An under-appreciated, and usually ignored, quality.
.

[DRGClarke]

08:22 AM on 12/04/2011

That's right, me as well . All this affirmative action and color equality has ruined the colleges from taking the best of the best. Now anyone who whines gets in and the best get shoved aside if there are too many white people.Wonder why there is mediocrity in our advancement> We have to import engineers from India because the students are taking the hard sciences and math. WHy? because they aren't the smartest or the brightest they are being allowed in because of the Governments PC equality garbage. Evryone is Guaranteed the Opportunity to suceed in this country but too many think it is a right.

[First Blast]

05:06 AM on 12/04/2011

This probably won't help[ Obama with the European American vote in key battleground states.

[Terravirgo]

04:11 AM on 12/04/2011

Yeah seriously- Berkeley is like 75% Asian!

[bluescat47]

07:23 AM on 12/04/2011

How dare those accomplished Asian - American kids work hard! Many of the latter do not designate their Asian background when applying to Ivy League schools because they suspect, probably correctly, that they will be held to a higher standard than other applicants.

[adamben]

09:50 AM on 01/13/2012

a lot are from asia, not asian-american.

[cccoyote]

03:53 AM on 12/04/2011

First step would be making tuition affordable instead of a predatory field for lenders.

[lisakaz2]

04:23 AM on 12/04/2011

Indeed, that could help, esp. if a goal is to widen diversity by income level and not solely race. I don't want race considered to only mean the equivalent of the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" gets in but not the kid of a guy who drives a fork lift who happens to have the academic chops.

[Y3rMawm]

01:51 AM on 12/04/2011

CRA 2.0. Kick that college debt bubble into overdrive O'Bamabot.

How about we base decisions on merit? Just a thought.

[MacTheBlogger]

07:02 AM on 12/04/2011

Merit and quality are no longer high priorities. The priority now is treating people differently based on the color of their skin. There used to be a word for that....
.

[AZreb]

07:52 AM on 12/04/2011

fanned -

[Y3rMawm]

03:21 PM on 12/04/2011

Indeed. I do not deny that there have been imbalances throughout history. But thinking we can solve a problem of violence and coercion, created by The State, with yet more violence and coercion is flatly absurd.

[Jimmy Boy]

01:24 AM on 12/04/2011

With global competition getting more intense each year, the US needs the most qualified students regardless of race or sex.

[morefreethings]

12:50 AM on 12/04/2011

aaaaand, obama isnt a rac ist? this is the definition of rac ism

[lisakaz2]

04:20 AM on 12/04/2011

Anyone who wants to encourage diversity is a racist? Hardly.

[MacTheBlogger]

07:26 AM on 12/04/2011

But someone who wants to treat people differently based simply on the color of their skin IS.
.

[Moderate Independent]

12:34 AM on 12/04/2011

Education is the one area where we don't need social engineering.If you work hard and study, you can make a big difference in your life. Last I checked, a lack of money or being a certain race does not preclude you from success through high academic achievement. It is really a cultural thing. In most Asian cultures, education is promoted.

The great Horace Mann said "Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery" and he also said "A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them." I'd say buy more books and less cable TV subscriptions if you want your children to be successful later in life.

[alpina]

12:16 AM on 12/04/2011

Was this speech written in 1972? Diversity has been a priority for universities for decades. Some would argue that they've actually gone too far. This speech seems to recommend an expansion of the existing quota system and a further lowering of the bar with regard to entrance qualifications which serves not to increase overall education but to dilute a college degree until it becomes about as useful as a GED. At present there is NO university anywhere in the U.S. that inhibits, prevents, excludes or denies admission based on race. So what the hell is this speech REALLY about???