Many universities are breathing a collective sigh of relief, according to the press, because of the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action. Yet the court also dismissed a point system, in which certain minorities are given a numeric advantage to help increase diversity on the campus.
I am not one who decries affirmative action. When I was applying to college, I learned that my first choice considered many factors other than test scores and grade point averages. It weighed the entrance interview by an alum, activities, teacher recommendations, and even geographic location. The school could have had its fill of northeastern budding technocrats, but wanted a broader sampling of the population. Coming from the south, where I spent the bulk of my upbringing, I am sure this became a consideration in my admission. Furthermore, there have always been factors outside raw test scores. Legacies - children of alumni and alumnae - often have close to a free ride into the doors of their parents alma mater. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that the nurturing mother also would give consideration to significant donations, to the word of the well-connected - in short, to the range of influences that a student's family might bring to bear.
For hundreds of years, these factors overtly included race and religion. The products of the best schools would go out into the world, make money, take prestigious positions in their fields, and send their children, in turn, who would continue the tradition. Could someone from the outside succeed without that boost? Certainly there were people that overcame prevailing conditions to do what they would, but such people have always been the source of anecdotal refutation on the part of some to cries of discrimination, since all that was missing was an obvious degree of gumption - well, that and any demonstration that a significant portion of the privileged could muster such effort themselves.
Entire categories of people have been frozen out of the country's success system for years, and I, for one, don't begrudge them some assistance to help level what is even now an inequitable competition. I hear others from a white European background complain that someone might have an advantage and I think of a three word phrase: suck it up. Try harder. Work longer. Push yourselves and your children to excel. All you are missing is the requisite degree of gumption.
Who might need even more in terms of effort, however, are the school administrators, as the point system has gone out the window. Why did they use such numerical methods? Because at the top schools, the flood of applications is enough to overwhelm even the tallest procedural levee. There are thousands of students to be considered, and the point system was clearly not some liberal plot so much as a coping mechanism. With that bit of automation gone, the schools will have to become inventive or hire more people to screen the candidates. More staff means higher expenses - and higher tuitions at institutions of higher education. So, in many ways, the change will mean business as usual.
5:07:49 AM 
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