Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 20293024
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED202379 AUTHOR: Van Alstyne, Arvo
TITLE: From Discrimination to Affirmative Action.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1978
NOTE: 12 p.; Paper presented at a Seminar for State Leaders
in Postsecondary Education (San Diego, CA, September 1978).
ABSTRACT: 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)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Admission-Criteria; Blacks-; Court
Litigation; Equal-Education; Federal-Aid; Federal
Legislation; Government-School-Relationship; Higher
Education; Legal-Responsibility; Medical-Schools; Racial
Composition
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Affirmative-Action; *College-Admission;
*Minority-Groups; *Selective-Admission
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