This article examines current issues regarding affirmative action in today's institutions of higher learning. It addresses the two recent cases decided before the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the University of Michigan's policy. Two other recent and related issues, the "Hopwood" case and California's Proposition 209 approach, are also…

This article concerns an issue that often remains implicit within the public debate about affirmative action and related race-conscious education policies: What role do contested moral ideals play in the disagreement about affirmative action? As background, the article first outlines what a moral disagreement is and then goes on to examine the…

The Supreme Court's ruling in the Bakke case, which found that strict numerical quotas were illegal in admissions programs, is analyzed in this article in terms of its applications to women's rights. It is pointed out that although the ruling, which was made on a statutory rather than a constitutional basis, conceded that race could be considered…

The Task Force on Undergraduate Admissions undertook in 1976 to determine: (1) what steps, if any, to take to participate the results of the California Postsecondary Education Commission study of the university's eligibility pool, which may show that the pool has grown larger than 12 1/2 percent in high school graduates; (2) what recommendations…

The need for affirmative action measures in social work education for the physically disabled is discussed. Issues and needs that should be considered in developing affirmative action programs for the disabled are described and suggestions are made for identifying and recruiting qualified disabled students for the social work field. (Author/BH)

Authors Bailey, Roos, and Cabello discuss the potential effects on school admissions and minority preference programs as a result of the impending Supreme Court decision on the Bakke case. (HLM)

The basic conclusions of a study done by the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education was that colleges and professional schools are vigorously engaged in affirmative-action admissions programs, and any restrictions on their freedom to use race as a criterion for acceptance could substantially reduce the participation of minority…

This legal document examines whether the University of Michigan Law School's use of racial preferences in student admissions violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et. seq.), or 42 U.S.C. 1981. This brief filed by the federal government in support of the…

This legal document addresses whether the Court should reaffirm its decision in Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978), holding that the educational benefits which flow from a diverse student body to an institution of higher education, its students, and the public it serves are sufficiently compelling to permit the…

This document, which is not legal advice, has been designed to help medical schools work with legal counsel to put into practice the rulings from two Michigan court cases that provide tools for enhancing medical school diversity and outline the contours of a race-conscious/ethnicity-conscious admissions policy likely to pass legal muster. The…

Texas, California, and Florida are implementing versions of a percent plan in college admissions. This report assesses these plans using data from published information on the plans; state- and institution-calculated higher education application, admission, and enrollment data; media accounts of social and political contexts surrounding the plans;…

This paper summarizes the history and impact of affirmative action in medical education. Affirmative action was introduced in the 1960s. From 1968-74, there was significant integration in medical education. The assassination of Martin Luther King was catalytic, and awareness of racial and class disparities in U.S. public health also spurred…

A graduate of Cornell university's class of 1970 reflects on his experiences as a black undergraduate at Cornell from 1966 to 1970, what affirmative action meant to him and his generation of college students, and the self-education black students experienced at Cornell at that time. William Bowen and Derek Bok recently published "The Shape of…

Egalitarianism (affirmative action) is seen as a disreputable term in academe because it implies a lowering of standards and an ignoring of differences in human abilities. Meritocracy connotes a privileged elite, who, by virtue of special opportunity and economic advantage, gain power and prestige and perpetuate a system of oppression. (MLW)

In the 1970s, school systems across the nation still practiced philosophies which perpetuate injustice and inequality of educational opportunity. Presented at the 35th Annual Conference of the National Association of College Admissions Counselors, October 1979, St. Louis, Missouri. (Author)