Affirmative Action In The Enrollment Of Students example essay topic

After about thirty years of implementation, affirmative action is losing the foothold that it has in our society. Many debates have arisen with the passing of proposition 209, a ban on affirmative action in California. Washington has even passed an initiative modeled from proposition 209, and more states are now starting to debate the issue. The ban has become a reality in major universities in California and Texas. The results show a significant decrease in the enrollment of minorities. Thus the question arises, what should we do with affirmative action?

Specifically, should public universities follow affirmative action in the enrollment of students? The University of Georgia was ordered by federal courts to admit its first black students on January 6, 1961. Since then, segregation has been abolished in all areas of the United States. The ending of affirmative action brings many new fears as to whether this desegregation will continue. There are fears that schools will decide to not admit minority students at all.

Then the community will regress to where it was back in 1961. There is no doubt that affirmative action has helped minority students to be accepted into college. The question arises though, is it the best program? Many anti-affirmative action proponents are crying "reverse discrimination".

They are saying that color should have absolutely no part in the enrollment of students at all. Many white students are angry at the notion of any preferential treatment based on color towards the enrollment of students. I was angry at this notion at first, but then I realized that colleges have always been using preferential treatment for many other things other than race. Athletes, musicians, children of alumni, and veterans are all given preferential treatment for enrollment, and for valid reasons too. Then, is it fair to enroll people based on their ethnicity? Well, it depends on how much people value diversification in the classroom.

Diversification is a value I appreciate in a school. I would love to have more diverse classrooms here at school. From the few experiences I have had, diverse people have greatly broadened my mind. While living in my cultural nutshell, I had the opinion that all foreigners look at America as the best country in the world, and envy Americans.

It was not until I talked to people from Israel, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, and Bulgaria, that I realized how egotistical I was. A testimony from Roxanne Gude man at Macalester College on diversification in one of her classes proceeds: In this class the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. It was the collectivity of students that exponentially enhanced class discussion and contributed to better research for every member of the class. For example, the U.S. students of color helped us interpret and analyze readings pertaining to biculturalism. The Latino students helped a European-American design a study of learning at a Spanish immersion school in St. Paul. A Turkish international student made valuable contributions when we discussed another student's research on the significance of gendered features of the Japanese language.

(Turkish lacks the kinds of grammatical gender marking found in Japanese and other languages spoken by class members.) Students with multiple cultures or origin introduced challenging perspectives on issues of cultural identity in the United States and on the process of cultural acquisition and enactment. All students were able to contribute cogent original ideas and interpretations because their rich variety of experiences in varying geographical and (multi-) cultural contexts created opportunities for nuanced comparative analyses. Classroom encounters of these kinds did not occur at "quality" educational institutions when I was a student of social science. Even when occasional non-European-Americans were in my classes, they were there to learn Western models and methods, not to teach and collaborate.

What a lost opportunity for everyone -- students, faculty, and researchers! A situation could arise where a university had to choose between me and a slightly less qualified person who is a minority. I would not mind them choosing that person over me. As long as that person meets the basic university academic standards, and the university wants more diversification.

This may seem like a harsh reality to some people, but think of a different situation. The other person is an athlete. Athletes really benefit the schools by bringing in money, and many other things. If the university chose an athlete over me, I would not even question their move. An Asian-American high school student Amy S. Cheung describes the paradox that schools face with enrollment.

"Looking at them as a race and giving them benefits because of that race doesn't make any sense. But I do not want to go into a classroom where everyone is Asian. What I like about living in California is that you get to know different types of people. That's one thing that's good about America" (Bronner California's). She does not see fairness in the admittance of people based solely on their race. Yet, she does not want a homogeneous campus either.

To create heterogeneous campuses, schools are admitting minority students who do not meet basic qualifications. Current affirmative action plans require the admittance of an amount of minority students that coincides with their percentage in the local population. If there are not enough qualified students to meet this percentage then the schools "should initiate affirmative steps to remedy the situation" (DOL). Some of the measures they recommend, relating to the work force but similar to education are as follows: (a) A recruitment program designed to attract qualified members of the group in question; (b) A systematic effort to organize work and redesign jobs in ways that provide opportunities for persons lacking 'journeyman' level knowledge or skills to enter and, with appropriate training, to progress in a career field; (c) Revamping selection instruments or procedures which have not yet been validated in order to reduce or eliminate exclusionary effects on particular groups in particular job classifications; I believe schools can, and do somewhat, follow the first two of these ideals. More time spent in the recruitment of minorities, and on campus help for minority students. There is a big argument whether following part d and researching standardized tests will help.

Schools use national standardized tests as one of their major guidelines for recruitment. I do not believe these tests to be racially biased towards white students. I have an African American friend who I went through primary and secondary school with. I know how smart he is, and his standardized test scores show exactly his level of knowledge. Since schools are not finding enough qualified students to enroll in the university they are admitting minority students who are not up to par with their counterparts.

The average SAT scores were 288 points below the Berkeley average for black students admitted before the removal of affirmative action (Krauthammer 22). The admittance statistics for California after in acting proposition 209 are thought provoking. Black and Hispanic admissions are down significantly at the two top campuses in the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA. Black admittance to Berkeley and UCLA is down 57% and 43% respectively. Hispanic admittance is down 40% and 33%. The drop was far less dramatic for the whole college, which includes six more campuses.

The total drop was 17.6% for blacks and 6.9% for Hispanics (Krauthammer 23). This shows the large number of non-qualified minority students that were enrolled in the prestigious colleges. I say non-qualified because of their dropout rate and their much lower SAT average. On the other hand, the door was not shut to minority students.

These students were enrolled into the less academically rigorous colleges in California where they more likely met the standards, and succeeded. The quotas that schools use for the enrollment of minorities harm minorities themselves. First of all, affirmative action hurts their campus environment. White students as a whole look down upon minority students. They generalize that all minority students were accepted only due to affirmative action.

Where as the white students had to work hard to achieve the academic standards of the university. Minority students that do meet the standards and maybe even outperform their white counterparts are being unjustly discriminated against. How do you think they feel about people of their race who get admitted solely due to affirmative action? The discrimination is pointed out by Ernie Sandoval, a Hispanic college student in California, "I consider affirmative action to be reverse discrimination, and I think affirmative action is counterproductive.

I think it helped the African American community throughout the '70's for a while and women. But at this point it is dividing the races" (Morin and Warden). Also, the students accepted because they had to fill a quota probably do not have much respect for themselves. With the elimination of quotas students can take pride in knowing that they got accepted because of their academic achievements. Maria Prado from Los Angeles who was rejected by San Diego, and UCLA, but approved by Los Angeles shows how great pride is. "I think that taking away affirmative action has hurt me in a way.

But in a way, I think it is better because they don't emphasize who you are but what you can do" (Bronner Referendum). Quotas help minority students get accepted into college, but they do not help them graduate. The dropout rate for blacks at Berkeley was 42% compared to 16% for whites (Krauthammer 23). What is the point of students getting accepted into a college that they are not academically prepared for and then failing to graduate?

The students who drop out have wasted money, and are "artificially turned into failures by being admitted to high-pressure campuses, where only students with exceptional academic backgrounds can survive" (Krauthammer 24). They may become discouraged and quit school all together. When recruiters scout a baseball player, they look purely at player's abilities. If the player is not good enough, he is sent to the Minor Leagues. If he proves himself there, he gets moved into the Major Leagues. There is no affirmative action program in baseball.

Let us say they were required by the government to properly represent the community by recruiting a player who is above 40 years old. There are qualified people in this group such as Nolan Ryan and Cal Ripken, but only a few. So the scout recruits the best player in that age group as possible. This player then gets dropped from the Major Leagues because he is not playing well enough.

Thus, his esteem could be hurt, other teams could note his failure, and his career may end. Where as, he could have had a great career in the Minor Leagues and possibly have ended up playing a few years in the Major Leagues. Sports recruitment is based solely on performance. African Americans have become the majority of players in the NBA. This is because they have worked hard to beat their competition. You do not see big movements by the ill-represented white, Asian, or Hispanic community to have their groups recruited.

They understand that they are not being recruited because of their lack of abilities. Minorities should not be accepted into a prestigious college if they do not meet the academic standards. Instead they should look into going to a less high-pressure college. White students have been doing this all along. There is no affirmative action for them. They go to the college that is best suited towards their current academic stance.

If they perform well, then they can move up. Our goal should not be to push students into a situation they are unprepared for, but instead to prepare them for the situation beforehand. The fundamental problem lies with primary and secondary schooling. The government needs to provide more funding for these schools. In fact students in urban schools are not even getting the books they need. 21 out of 24 students interviewed in the San Francisco Bay Area reported there were not enough books to go around in their classes (De domenico).

After providing more funding, the government should research programs that enhance the learning for minority students. If students are given a quality education like the majority of white students, there will be no problems getting them into the top colleges. The minority community can also improve the situation by promoting learning and getting their peers to hold education at a higher level. The notion of quota guidelines in the enrollment of minority student in public universities should be eliminated. Schools should be able to retain the right to enroll some minority students based on the added values of diversification.

Quotas hurt minorities in many ways. Minorities are being discriminated against on college campuses. Those enrolled as quota fillers usually wind up dropping out, unduly jeopardizing their college careers. Also, students knowing they may have been admitted only due to affirmative action obtain lower self-esteems. Stopping the use of quota based enrollment will send ripples through our educational system, and help improve the quality of education for minorities. Society as a whole will benefit..