Melissa Wilde Jason DeLaRosa CULF 2321 Topic Proposal

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In the final years of high school, students are presented with the prospect of higher education. Some may opt to directly enter the workforce, but the majority of students in todays society apply to universities. For many in our next generation, the college admissions process dictates their future careers. Since the 1960s, when a Supreme Court ruling effectively banned segregation in schools, the school boards have been continually obligated to manually diversify their school communities (Feder 3). In higher education admission departments, the amount of minorities in their student bodies was now a factor to be closely monitored. Affirmative action is a policy that has been implemented with the aim of diversifying the student body of a given institution by making race a consideration in the admissions process. While this idea has been used in elementary schools and with general employment, the primary controversy surrounding this practice is within the realm of higher education. A research study completed by the University of Michigan states that At the University of Texas Law School, Latino/a student enrollment has been cut in half since affirmative action programs were outlawed in 1995 (Affirmative). A fact sheet provided by the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights Education Fund further attests that since the 1980s minority college attendance has improved over 57% since the implementation of affirmative action (Affirmative 2). Conversely, some argue that affirmative action is not what is needed to diversify universities. In a discussion of the case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the author notes that enacting the Top Ten Percent Plan, a race neutral admissions policy, significantly increased minority enrollment at all Texas universities (Feder 12).

2 Melissa Wilde Wilde```````` Jason DeLaRosa CULF 2321 Several Supreme Court cases have presented this issue over the course of the last three decades; however the most recent case to be in contention, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, ruled in favor of affirmative action, yet not in favor of UTs admissions program. The court cited that affirmative action must be used only in a program where any other option would not increase diversity as effectively. The newest court case, however, questions whether banning affirmative action on a state level entirely is unconstitutional or not. Some would argue that affirmative action can be replaced by alternative programs, and are simply enabling a form of reverse discrimination in admissions departments. Others will argue that affirmative action is the only effective way to diversify not only within a student body, but also across majors and career paths. The question of the ruling in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action in regard to Michigans Proposition 2 will affect the admissions decisions of many generations to follow all over the country.

Melissa Wilde Jason DeLaRosa CULF 2321 Works Cited

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"Affirmative Action Facts." Affirmative Action Facts. University of Michigan, n.d. Web. 05 Sept. 2013. Affirmative Action Fact Sheet. Rep. N.p.: LCCR, n.d. Print. Feder, Jody. Affirmative Action and Diversity in Public Education: Legal Developments. Rep. no. RL30410. N.p.: n.p., 2013. Print.