By the end of this month, the Supreme Court of the U.S. will rule on whether to allow colleges and universities to consider race in the admissions process.
The two cases, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admission v. University of North Carolina, were brought to the supreme court by Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit membership group seeking to overturn “unfair, unnecessary, and unconstitutional” affirmative action policies.
Affirmative action refers to policies in the admissions process that aim at increasing the number of racial minority students on campus.
NYU Law professor and ACLU president Deborah Archer argues in an informational articleposted on the NYU website, titled “What happens if the Supreme Court bans affirmative action?” that a ban could have a profoundly negative effect on diversity on college campuses.
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“Affirmative action is ground zero in a larger fight around racial justice,” Archer writes. “It is one step in a much larger effort to impose a colorblind framework on all of society and to make it impossible for public policy to address the deep and profound racial inequality. Colorblindness is the antithesis of diversity and it exacerbates racial injustice by preventing all of us from grappling with the ways race shapes our lives, experiences, and opportunities.”
Archer states that, even if affirmative action is banned, universities should still continue to strive for diversities through other avenues, including “Evaluating academic achievement in context; giving credit to students who have attended underserved and underrepresented schools; considering socioeconomic status and English language learner status; considering group or community demographics; and expanded outreach and recruitment efforts.”
Adam Ellwanger, a professor at the University of Houston-Downtown and a contributor for Campus Reform, wrote an article on the effects of affirmative action earlier this year.
“Having a diverse student population does have benefits,” wrote Ellwanger, “But when that diversity is achieved by means that are prejudicial rather than meritocratic, the entire campus community suffers. The court should not pass up the opportunity to ensure fairness and equality in college admissions – finally, once and for all.”
Campus Reform Higher Ed Fellow Ken Tashjy added in an interview with Real America’s Voice that overturning affirmative action would not have a real impact on the diversity of admissions. “We’ve got nine states currently that have outlawed the use of race in admissions, and those [state colleges and universities] still boast very broad diversity rates, still maintain their academic competitiveness, through a series of race-neutral factors,” he said.
Campus Reform Reached out to NYU, Students for Fair Admissions, Adam Ellwanger, and Deborah Archer. This article will be updated accordingly.
Originally published by Campus Reform. Republished with permission.
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