Issues pertaining to the Bakke case and to college admissions in general are considered. Three major viewpoints concerning admissions are as follows: whether reserving a fixed number of seats in the entering class for designated minority candidates to programs that are federally supported violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; whether the use of race and ethnicity as nondecisive factors to be considered in a flexible admissions program, which also takes many other circumstances into account, is valid as a means for producing diversity among the students in an educational program that is federally supported; and whether race and ethnicity may be used as decisive factors in the admissions process, without violation of the Equal Protection Clause, if responsible legislative, administrative, or judicial bodies have determined that this approach is necessary to remedy specific prior discriminatory practices of the institution. Some relevant legal and constitutional issues that need to be addressed include the following: whether the Bakke decision applies to educational programs that receive no direct federal support, merely because other programs within the same institution do receive such support, or federal financial aid is available to students in attendance there; and whether the Bakke case suggests a judicial tolerance for more discretion and less rigidity in the admissions process, thus paving the way for imaginative and more flexible approaches short of strict racial quotas. It is concluded that (1) if an institution wishes to adopt a racially sensitive admissions program, it must be prepared to articulate the precise manner in which the structure and criteria used serve the stated objectives of the program; and (2) the Bakke case appears to suggest that the greatest opportunity for vigorous affirmative action program lies in legislative hands. (SW)