It's not clear how supportive African Americans are of racial preferences. Supporters of preferences like to use the term "affirmative action," which is supported by most African Americans, but it is not the same thing. The old forms of affirmative action--positive, proactive measures to end discrimination, and aggressive outreach and recruiting…

In this interview, Gray shares his reflections and hopes for the future of diversity in higher education. He contends that higher education has much more important issues to debate than the false issue of affirmative action and racial exclusion. He emphasizes that what ought to be talked about is how to increase access for everybody, especially…

Given the overwhelming popular appeal of merit-based college admissions, George La Noue advocates a new transparency in how colleges and universities select their students. He has some suggestions about how colleges might comply with court-mandated requirements for case-by-case evaluations. He also provides hints from which NAS members might…

This article discusses the impact of the Employment Equity Act, 1998 on the higher education sector of South Africa. An introduction to the background and development of affirmative action and employment equity is provided. The author then discusses the specialised constraints and challenges faced by higher education employers, separating them…

The 21st century has brought new challenges and opportunities for higher education. In the wake of the transition from elitist to mass education, universities worldwide are under pressure to enhance access and equity, on the one hand, and to maintain high standards of quality and excellence, on the other. Today the notion of equity not only…

One of the major objectives at Diverse is to bring clarity and understanding to the most pressing issues that confront the higher education community. Nowhere is there a greater need for such lucidity than in the area of diversity. In the most honored of academic and campus traditions, Diverse convened a group of scholars from various colleges,…

The impact of the Knight v. Alabama ruling by looking at undergraduate student demographic data for historically African American Alabama A&M University and Alabama State University and traditionally American Auburn University and the University of Alabama is discussed. To eradicate the remaining residue of discrimination and segregation, the…

Despite three decades of affirmative action efforts, counseling programs continue to struggle with the challenge of recruiting and retaining African American women faculty. African American women in general, and African American female professors in particular, have emerged from what Hudson-Weems (1989) terms as a tripartite form of oppression, of…

Increasing the participation of minority groups at public colleges and universities is a longstanding goal of the Board of Governors for Higher Education, as first outlined in its 1983 "Strategic Plan to Ensure Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Connecticut Public Higher Education." The minority groups defined by the plan are:…

On June 16, 2006, a panel of experts briefed members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on affirmative action in American law schools. The panel convened to debate the empirical strength of the research on the effects of racial preferences in law school admissions and the legal and policy implications of the American Bar Association's…

This article examines the attitudes of baccalaureate aspiring community college students with regard to affirmative action in college admissions. Using data from UCLA's Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Annual Freshman Year Survey, the study assessed determinants of approval or disapproval of affirmative action for 20,339 community…

Efforts to expand diversity in the health professions has received a boost from a prominent member of Congress. U.S. Senator Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, recently introduced a bill to amend the Public Health Service Act as part of a comprehensive initiative to improve the health of minority and other underserved populations. This bill, which is being…

Might it be possible to achieve some or all of the goals of affirmative action through an approach based on an entirely different definition of the problem? This article says "yes." Its logic rests not upon an approach that creates informal quotas for identified groups, but instead on one aimed at discovering merit in people who are…

Harvard psychologist Dr. Mahzarin R. Banaji is helping explore the world of subconscious bias with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Banaji teamed up with fellow psychology professors Dr. Anthony Greenwald of the University of Washington and Dr. Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia to develop the IAT. The IAT was created as a tool to…

From its inception, affirmative action policies were created to improve the employment and/or educational opportunities for members of minority groups and women. Even today, however, the debate continues over the future of affirmative action. Proponents offer empirical evidence illustrating that affirmative action has been favorable in aiding…