In this piece for Campus Reform, SLF Attorney and 1A Project Director Cece O’Leary explains that it is time for our courts to stop deferring to colleges’ weak argument that race-conscious admissions somehow help them fulfill their educational goals. This theory has not held true in practice.
O’Leary writes:
It’s no secret that there is an obsession with race among our nation’s colleges.
On every campus, there seems to be another multicultural center for BIPOC students, or a class on how to be woke, or a bias response team.
And while the country is finally waking up to just how far left American society has drifted recently, such politics have been the norm on college campuses for years.
The question, then, is: Why has this emphasis on race in higher ed existed, undisturbed, for so long?
The answer is simple: since at least 1977, colleges have been allowed—even encouraged—to consider the race of applicants during the admissions process.
Universities target and recruit students of certain minority groups and then consider race at every step of the admissions process. These administrators then assess an incoming class’s racial composition as they advance or reject individual applications.
If a race seems underrepresented, colleges can, and often do, advance the application of a student of that race. If a student’s application is on the fence, admissions officers can award racial bonus points to push the application through.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear two lawsuits brought by Students for Fair Admissions, one against Harvard and the other against University of North Carolina. Both schools use drastic and discriminatory measures to racially balance their incoming classes. As SLF explains in its amicus brief supporting SFFA’s challenge against Harvard and amicus brief supporting SFFA’s challenge against UNC, the time to end race-based admissions is now.
Read the full article at CampusReform.org.