Whatever Happened to Affirmative Action?

• Author: Samuelsen, Shelby

The debate over affirmative action resurfaces as states grapple with how to maintain diversity in higher education.

A Michigan native, Jennifer Gratz worked hard in high school in hopes of attending the University of Michigan. She earned a 3.77 grade point average, was a varsity cheerleader, served in class congress and was homecoming queen. With these credentials, she thought her chances were good.

So she was surprised when she was rejected by the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and Arts. Jennifer, a white woman, believes that her fate was the result of an unfair, race-based admissions policy. After learning about a lawsuit against the university, she joined the 1997 effort "because I do not want anyone else to be discriminated against based on the color of his or her skin," she says. "The university's admissions policy is wrong."

In December 2000, a U.S. district judge ruled in favor of the university, stating that while the school's older 1996-98 policy was unfair, standards used at the university since last year that allow the school to consider race and ethnicity in admissions were acceptable. The case is likely to be appealed.

That lawsuit represents a new phase in the debate over affirmative action that began in the 1970s. In the landmark Bakke case, the Supreme Court held that race may be used as one of several factors in determining college admissions. This practice, propelled by the civil rights movement in the 1960s, was embraced as a way to redress years of racial discrimination and oppression.

Forty years later, many still maintain that race-based college admissions help minorities overcome some of the barriers on the pathway to higher education. Members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People continue to promote these policies as an important mechanism for ensuring diversity in higher education.

"Affirmative action is very needed in today's society," says Florida Senator Kendrick Meek. "People are still judged based on their ethnicity and gender." He says that we don't yet live in a color-blind society. "We have to work to get to a level playing field, and affirmative action is the last frontier for equal opportunity."

Some supporters believe policies can be improved and re-evaluated, but should not be discarded. People expect colleges and universities to reflect an increasingly diverse society, and many believe affirmative action serves as the means to this goal.

Last December, a federal appeals court reaffirmed this when it ruled in favor of using race as a consideration for college admission. It said that the University of Washington Law School acted legally when it considered the race of applicants in its now abandoned admissions policy. This allows publicly funded schools in the 9th Circuit--including Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Oregon--to continue using affirmative action policies, but will not affect current admissions in California and Washington, where state law does not allow consideration of race.

But others argue it's time to move away from affirmative action. By the mid-1990s, ballot initiatives and litigation in several states reflected a growing public sentiment that these policies had done more harm than good. Critics contend they lead to reverse discrimination against whites and unfairly penalize white students. Jennifer's story symbolizes this backlash against current affirmative action policies in the nation's colleges and universities.

Michigan Senator David Jaye, who helped bring the lawsuit against the University of Michigan, argues the school is "stealing a college education, jobs and business opportunities from nonminority students and giving them to less qualified minority applicants."

"Qualified students are being turned away because of the color of their skin," Jaye says. "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. must be spinning in his grave."

Why are we seeing this growing backlash? Are we as a society becoming less tolerant? Does the public believe that conditions for minorities...