Both supporters and critics of Texas' Top 10 Percent law have been surprised at its popularity, but some UT officials and legislators would like to see the program scaled back. As a Texas state legislator, Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, knows a thing or two about influencing the voting positions of his colleagues. This past spring, when Texas House…

Programs that serve underrepresented minority students have long faced many challenges. Prior to the late 1970s, higher education institutions reserved academic program slots for underrepresented minority students because these students had limited access to opportunities that afforded them credentials that their white counterparts could more…

For a number of years, colleges and universities have been making efforts to amend past discrimination and noninclusion of underserved minority students through targeted admissions, financial aid, and other programs. Now, these programs--in their original incarnation and, some would say, their original intent--are on the line. The big push to…

Describes how three prominent advocacy organizations are working to find and challenge any college program that serves only members of specific minority groups. (EV)

In this essay, Rebecca Zwick confronts the controversy surrounding the use of standardized tests in college admissions. She examines the degree to which the SAT and its lesser known cousin, the ACT, limit access to college, particularly for racial and ethnic minorities, and considers two alternative admissions policies that do not involve tests:…

In this article the author describes and explains the development of the distribution of ethnic groups between schools in the Dutch school system. Three mechanisms steer this distribution: (a) founding and maintaining schools along "religious" lines, (b) the academic selectivity of the school system, and (c) the distribution of…

College and university student populations have changed due to the increased participation of nontraditional students. Admission policies and creative academic support programs in higher education that do not have negative effects on any particular group will aid in the recruitment and retention of students from diverse cultures. (DF)

This paper explains people's preferences for ethnic and racial diversity in higher education through a model based on self-interest. Although all citizens from the majority group value diversity and their own education in the same way, their preferences for the level of diversity as well as the means of achieving it depend on their competitive…

Argues that the current re-evaluation of racial preferences is unlikely to make a complete victory for either side of the affirmative action debate. Many types of compromise are possible, six of which are described. Suggests the courts should limit themselves to principled decision making in cases involving racial preference. (SLD)

This study provides a comprehensive profile of all types of "minority-serving institutions" (MSIs), in the United States and to examine the characteristics of minority students who attend these institutions. The report adds to earlier research focusing on single types of MSIs--primarily Historically Black Colleges and Universities…

This paper addresses how institutional selectivity influences college preferences and enrollment decisions of Texas seniors in the presence of a putatively race-neutral admissions policy--the top 10% law. We analyze a representative survey of Texas high school seniors as of spring, 2002, who were re-interviewed 1 year later to evaluate differences…

The New York Times recently published an article titled "Little Advance Is Seen in Ivies' Hiring of Minorities and Women." The article leaves the reader with two distinct impressions: First, the pool of qualified minority scholars is just too small. And second, domestic issues make these high-powered jobs unattractive to female scholars.…

This article is a theoretical and empirical study of the ways in which different South Asian groups, Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani, achieve entry into the selective education system, taking into consideration the factors of social class, ethnicity and culture. In-depth interviews with 42 South Asian school pupils from three single-sex…

Points out an emerging confluence of apparently unrelated forces that eventually may join in a serious threat to the practice of selective admissions. Focuses on several paragraphs in the recent Newman Report on graduate education; the ruling in DeFunis vs Odegaard, a case decided by the Washington State Supreme Court; and certain provisions of…

This book examines the law and politics surrounding the Bakke case ("Regents of the University of California v. Bakke") and discusses the key arguments presented by both sides in the context of the current eroding public support for affirmative action. The goal is to elucidate the dynamics of U.S. Supreme Court decision making and…