Two Decades After the Affirmative Action Ban: Evaluating the University of California’s Race-Neutral Efforts
- Author(s):
- Kidder, William C.; Gandara, Patricia C.
- Publication Year:
- 2017
- Report Number:
- RR-17-40
- Source:
- Orfield, Gary (ed.) Alternative Paths to Diversity: Exploring and Implementing Effective College Admissions Policies. (RR-17-40). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, 2017, p25-48.
- Document Type:
- Chapter
- Page Count:
- 24
- Subject/Key Words:
- Student Diversity, Affirmative Action, College Admissions, Civil Rights, Fisher Decision, Higher Education, University of California, Academic Preparation, Financial Aid, African American, Hispanic American Students, Academic Preparation, Community College Students, Percent Plans
Abstract
In this study, we examine the issues raised by the Supreme Court’s decision in the 2013 Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin case. The decision permitted affirmative action but required colleges challenged by students claiming discrimination to show that they could find no feasible way to achieve the needed diversity without considering race, among other factors, in the admission process. This paper provides a case study of the efforts and outcomes of the race-neutral alternatives that were developed and implemented in the University of California (UC), the nation’s largest system of research universities, in the wake of the loss of affirmative action. In spite of high investments of both human and financial resources in many areas, the UC has never recovered the same level of diversity that it had before the loss of affirmative action nearly 20 years ago—a level that, at the time, was widely considered to be inadequate to meet the needs of the state and its young people. It has never come close to a student body representing the state’s population.