Featured Image: Justin represents College Republicans Club at the Student Involvement Fair.
In order to give my opinion about the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on affirmative action regarding college admissions, I find it necessary to give some background information on the topic.
As defined by the National Archives of The White House, “Affirmative action measures for education were originally put in place in the 1960’s because only 4.9% of college students were African American in that time period.” Colleges wanted to ensure that they had a more diverse student body to better represent multiculturalism in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s.
“The 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke Supreme Court case officially upheld the use of affirmative action in college admissions,” the American Association for Equity and Diversity said.
The University of California v. Bakke case shows that, even back in 1978, affirmative action was seen as discriminatory even though it was intended to help promote equality and inclusion.
Affirmative action did help tremendously with diversifying the student body at all colleges across the US during the 1960s and 1970s. There was a notable rise in the acceptance rate for African Americans, but it has hurt minority groups including, but not limited to, Hispanics, Latinos and Asians along with hurting the white majority group by making college admissions more geared towards race and ethnicity as opposed to being about school or community achievements.
As with many initiatives, affirmative action was put in place to help disenfranchised groups of people. However, as time progresses, these initiatives hurt people more than help them by unintentionally excluding other groups of people. I agree with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action because it has, without intention, disenfranchised groups of people. I believe that affirmative action creates an unintended barrier for well-achieving students in all ethnic groups, with a set number of students having to be admitted from each ethnic group.
I also believe that all students, regardless of race or ethnicity, should be admitted into any college of their choice for their achievement of a good GPA or college admission test score.
I believe that Virginia Wesleyan University has done a great job with admitting an equal portion of students from all ethnic and racial backgrounds while still awarding students for good GPA standing and college admission test scores. I feel that Virginia Wesleyan University is a great example of how a diverse student body can be achieved without using affirmative action.
I believe, as with anything, there is always room for improvement, including equally representing all ethnic and racial groups in college admissions, not just at Virginia Wesleyan University, but at all other colleges and universities in the U.S.
I believe that, instead of affirmative action, we can set or amend current GPA requirements along with SAT and ACT requirements to better represent all college-age students to ensure a diverse student body that represents the diversity currently in the U.S.
I also feel that we can implement an essay into admission qualifications about how students have positively shaped their current community or school, and how those attributes can benefit the college or university that is reviewing student applications.
I view the overturning of affirmative action by the U.S. Supreme Court as another step toward being, as stated in the U.S. Constitution, “A More Perfect Union.”
Justin Wilt is a senior political science major and is the vice president of the College Republicans Club. He can be contacted at jtwilt@vwu.edu.
By: Justin Wilt
jtwilt@vwu.edu