Changes (and rumors of changes) to racial preferences nationwide
The face of racial preferences, under the misnomer “affirmative action,” is changing in several places nationwide.
The face of racial preferences, under the misnomer “affirmative action,” is changing in several places nationwide.
One of the University of North Carolina’s greatest benefactors on Monday sued the state and the UNC Board of Governors for using “an unnecessary and illegal quota system” to ensure that minorities and women received spots on the UNC Board of Governors.
Large public university systems in California, Texas and Florida may have increased minority enrollment in the face of an end to affirmative action. But the change may not be the result of increased minority test performance. In fact, many schools are dropping the SAT and ACT academic achievement exams as admissions requirements altogether, according to a recent USA Today report, automatically admitting students who are top-ranked in their high schools.
While most students favor ethnic diversity on campus, they oppose compromising fairness and high standards to achieve it, according to new survey by Zogby International. The study, commissioned by the New York-based Foundation for Academic Standards and Tradition (FAST), interviewed 1,004 randomly selected college students nationwide.
The Princeton-based National Association of Scholars (NAS) and the Berkeley-based California Association of Scholars (CAS) last week expressed great satisfaction over enrollment figures released by the University of California. Minority enrollment at the University of California is up despite the banning of race preferential admissions policies there three years ago.
Despite increased security, crime will likely continue to be a problem for area college campuses.
Minority freshmen enrollment at the University of Texas at Austin is near pre-Hopwood levels, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education Daily News online. Racial preferences were discontinued in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas following the 1996 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the Hopwood case.
N.C. A&T State University should learn who will be its new chancellor on Friday, March 19. As of press time on Thursday, March 18, President Molly Broad’s office had not made public the names of the four candidates for the position, except one name: Harold Martin, vice chancellor for academic affairs at N.C. A&T.
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst announced Feb. 18 that it would shift away from using race preferences in its admissions policies. The university will instead consider socioeconomic status and extracurricular activities when deciding whether to admit students and award financial aid.
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is at a comparably high level of preparedness for the computer glitch known as the “Year 2000” (Y2K) problem, the campus’s University Gazette is reporting.