By focusing on the U.S. military's support of affirmative action in recent affirmative action cases, this conceptual article posits that there are lessons to be learned from the military by postsecondary scholars, practitioners, and policy makers who support race-conscious policies in higher education. This suggestion rests on two points--first,…

"Gerrymandering" is known best as a tool to manipulate boundaries for voting districts, but school districts have long used the same tool to manipulate school boundaries. The author used geospatial techniques--mapping various kinds of demographic data onto school boundaries--to examine public school attendance zones and their effect on…

The last several years have seen renewed debate over the role that race plays in higher education--a debate over "affirmative action." The report first considers "affirmative action" in its original sense: the "mandatory" race-conscious measures that the federal courts have imposed on "de jure" segregated…

This essay discusses the contentious events leading to the decision by the University of California's Board of Regents to end affirmative action in admissions, hiring and contracting at the university in July 1995. This controversial decision provided momentum for California's passage of Proposition 209 the following year ending "racial…

Although characterized by repeated ethnic conflicts, Sudan has implemented affirmative action at universities since the 1970s for students coming from war zones and remote areas. The implementation of compensatory measures has been promoted--somehow imposed--by the several peace treaties and by the massive expansion of higher education during the…

After a decade of silence, the US Supreme Court in two recent cases has spoken on issues of race and ethnicity in higher education--in June 2013, with its "Fisher v. University of Texas" opinion, and in April 2014, with the "Schuette v. BAMN" decision. In "Fisher," the court amplified and elaborated on key points of…

Since gaining independence in 1957, the Federation of Malaya and now Malaysia has implemented education policies to broaden access, to unify an ethnically diverse population through a common curriculum and language, to enable the disadvantaged to catch up through affirmative action, and to build human capital as the country seeks to become an…

This article presents our conceptualization, initial creation and implementation of a university-school-community partnership, the Westside Pathways Project. We introduce our work in developing and sustaining this K-16 educational pathways partnership as one way of broadening the affirmative action discussion. By describing a model of…

This invited commentary provides a response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case of "Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin" (2013). The author addresses the question regarding whether the newest decision about the use of affirmative action in higher education admissions raised the bar with respect to the legal doctrine of…

This is the 13th paper in the Association of Governing Boards (AGB's) series summarizing federal and state public policy issues affecting higher education. Governing boards, institutional and university-system leaders, and senior staffs will find it useful for board discussions and retreats and in formulating institutional responses to these…

The National Association of Scholars believes that higher education should gather scholars and students to cultivate excellence and pursue the truth, transmit the heritage of Western civilization to a new generation, prepare cultured and virtuous citizens, and train students for vocational success. American colleges and universities should embody…

In both China and in the United States, policies of "positive discrimination" were originally intended to lessen educational and economic inequalities, and to provide equal opportunities. As with affirmative action in the American context, China's "preferential policies" are broad-reaching, but are best known for taking ethnic…

It is not often that Supreme Court watchers agree; however, right now, it seems that most agree on one thing: the Supreme Court term that started in October 2013 is going to be a blockbuster. The docket over the last couple of years has had more than its fair share of headline-grabbing cases, from gay marriage to Obamacare to the Voting Rights…

After almost a half century, American higher education's use of racial preferences in admissions to selective colleges may well be coming to an end. The good news for people concerned about racial and economic justice is that in several states that have banned racial affirmative action by voter referendum or executive order, legislators and…

The State of Higher Education in California is a series of reports by the Campaign for College Opportunity that provide comprehensive data on the current state of college access and completion for our state and what it means for our economy. This report analyzes the state of Latinx in California education. Specifically, this report reviews…