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Affirmative Action and the University of Texas Go Before the Supreme Court This Week

Posted byHoumanitarian

(Mike Tolson, Houston Chronicle)
In the fall of 2008, the University of Texas enrolled 10,335 minority students, not including Asian-Americans. As far as Abigail Fisher was concerned, that was one too many.

Fisher had made good grades in high school – a 3.59 average on a 4.0 scale – posted a score of 1180 on the SAT test and finished as number 82 in a graduating class of 674 at Stephen F. Austin High School in Sugar Land. She figured that was good enough. Then came those dreadful words: “We regret to inform you …”

Fisher was heartbroken. Her dad went to Texas, and her sister. She bled burnt orange. “I had dreamt of going to UT since the second grade,” she said.

This week Fisher may get a little payback. On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the lawsuit she brought against the school that challenges an admissions policy that openly allows for the use of racial preferences. If she’s successful – and legal pundits are saying there is a good chance – colleges and universities could henceforth be banned from even considering the racial or ethnic backgrounds of applicants.

More: “Critical mass” key to UT affirmative action case (Houston Chronicle)

“I was taught from the time I was a little girl that any kind of discrimination was wrong,” Fisher said in a videotaped interview posted on YouTube by her lawyers, who have asked her to do no press interviews. “For an institution of higher learning to act this way makes no sense to me. What kind of example does this set for others?”

Fisher’s collegiate career worked out fine. She went to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and received her finance degree earlier this year. She has a job as a financial analyst and a promising future.

But the UT rejection still bothers her. She said she knew of classmates who had a less polished résumé than hers but were Austin-bound anyway, and she had an idea why.

“The only difference between us was the color of our skin,” Fisher said.

Current law, established by a Supreme Court ruling in 2003, allows schools to consider race in narrow circumstances to achieve a “critical mass” of minority students. But the high court said the practice cannot continue indefinitely and called on them to work toward a colorblind admission process.
(Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle)

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