[url]http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/934631/posts[/url]

And the floodgates begin to open...

Thank you SCOTUS! [pissed]

Hopwood Overruled: Texas to Rewrite College Admissions Policies

Laredo, TX, Morning Times ^ | 06-24-03 | Vertuno, Jim, AP

Posted on 06/24/2003 6:54 AM PDT by Theodore R.


Texas to rewrite admissions policies

BY JIM VERTUNO Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN - The University of Texas will draft new affirmative action admissions policies that include race as a factor as allowed by Monday's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, school President Larry Faulkner said Monday.

Any new policy for undergraduate admissions would have to work within the confines of the state law that entitles Texas high school students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their class enrollment in a state university.

Monday's ruling ends the rule of the so-called "Hopwood" decisions by federal courts and former state Attorney General Dan Morales that prohibited race being used as a factor in admissions as well as scholarship and financial aid, Faulkner said.

"It gets to the heart of what we try to accomplish as an institution," Faulkner said. "All university leaders in the United States feel keenly their responsibility to educate the leadership of the nation. That leadership will come from all population sectors. It's important for us to have strong representation here of students from all sectors of society."

The earliest any changes could effect enrollment would be the 2004 fall freshman class. The top 10 percent rule will dominate about 70 percent of that class, leaving only about 30 percent to fall under any new race-included admissions policy.

In two separate rulings Monday, the court approved a program used at the University of Michigan law school that gives race a role in the admissions decision-making process. It struck down a separate point system used by the university to give minority preference in undergraduate admissions, but that ruling did not go as far as opponents of affirmative action had wanted.

UT had previously tried to get the Supreme Court to overturn the "Hopwood" rulings and was interested in how it ruled on the Michigan cases.

Minority state lawmakers and advocacy groups hailed the rulings.

"Today's decision is great news for students of color," said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston. "It affirms that the doors of higher education should be open to diversity and opportunity should exist for all."

Nina Perales, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, called on all Texas universities to renew affirmative action programs.

"They create a stronger, more excellent student body," Perales said. "Affirmative action is the key to Latino educational advancement."

The Hopwood decisions stemmed from a lawsuit filed against the University of Texas law school admissions policies that considered race. The top 10 percent rule was created in 1997 to boost minority enrollment without specific race-based policies.

Faulkner said the 10 percent law has been successful in some areas, bad for universities in others.

Students who might never have considered going to college now think about it because they know they can get it in, he said. But schools also want to be able to choose some of their students with varying criteria.

"It's simply unhealthy for a whole class to be admitted on one criteria," Faulkner said.

Some state lawmakers considered tweaking the 10 percent rule to place a cap on the percentage of a freshman class it would enroll. That idea was defeated but could resurface under the Supreme Court's ruling.

The Legislature is scheduled to convene June 30 for a special session on congressional redistricting. Gov. Rick Perry could add the 10 percent rule to the session.

Brian Haley, president of the UT-Austin student government, wrote Perry on Monday urging him to add the 10 percent rule to the call of the session.

Perry spokesman Gene Acuna said the governor's office was studying the ruling's impact on Texas with Attorney General Greg Abbott. Any decision on expanding the session's issues will come after it starts, he said.

A more immediate program would likely come in graduate programs which do not fall under the 10 percent rule, Faulkner said.

Faulkner and Douglas Laycock, associate dean of the UT law school, noted the court's decision does not allow quotas and does not speak specifically to financial aid and scholarship programs.

Both said the university can consider race without a quota system and that they believe the ruling would apply to financial aid programs.

In the Name of "Diversity", bend over a bit more there, Whitey............ahhhhh, MORE!!  [pissed]

EXACTLY!!!!!!
I really don't see how affirmative action helps anyone? Either you are smart enough for the school/job or you are not.

Someone explain to me how giving a job/school admission to someone who is less intelligent, but they got extra points for color makes sense?

Does anyone else see this as racist or should I just STFU?

Proponents of AA argue that it's not an issue of an unqulified minority getting a position over a qualified white. They argue that they are mearly selecting a diverse group from the many qualified applicants. In some instances they have admissions policies that assign only as pass /fail "score" to applicants. you could be the class validictorian of your highschool and you are rated no higher for admissions than someone who meets the colleges minimum requirents. No college applicant is more or less qualified than another with the pass or fail system. In that way they can say we have 1000 "qualified" applicants, but only 500 spots. with a pass/fail system them can pick a diverse freshman class, without anyone saying you they were "more" qualified.

If we dont rate the applicants, then a better qualified student can never claim he was passed over by a lesser student, becuase they are all equal. It's a big f'ing scam.

Makes you want to puke.
________________________________________________
Which will it be, Webster's or Oxford?

Wouldn't it be easier, and more benificial to simply do away with any race related question, and rely 100% on ones aptitude?

If you don't know if John Jones is a black man or a white man then it would be rather hard to discriminate on the racial basis.

As has been pointed out on several other threads, those pushing for AA have given up the "level the playing field" argument.  Now it's "diversity".  The idea being that lowering standards to "diversify" the student body is by itself enough justification.

This will come back and bite us HARD on the ass in the next few years, but I'm not surprised by it.  Appearances have been more important than reality and performance for several decades and that trend is only going to get worse.

The dumbing down of America is now gotten the SCOTUS stamp of approval and it would seem that institutions are rushing to embrace it.

Ladies and gentlemen, lock, load and fasten your seatbelts… we're in for a VERY rough ride.

Indicators of ethnicity such as name, home town, school, extracuricular activity would all remain on the apllication.

Tryrese Jones graduated George Washington high with a letter in Basketball.

Brad Smith graduated Sunyville high with a letter in Water Polo.

betcha the college administrators can make a pretty good guess on races with that info...

Bet it don't happen this way at A+M

TXL