Most Americans Say Colleges Shouldn't Consider Race Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of a representative sample of Americans said that race or ethnicity should not be a factor, according to a survey released Monday by the Pew Research Center. Solid majorities of white, black, Latino and Asian Americans shared that view. The finding is consistent with others but is the first national survey on the topic since the ending of the trial in a lawsuit against Harvard University charging that its affirmative action programs discriminate against Asian American applicants. (A decision in the case, which prompted much public discussion, is expected this spring.) In 2016, after the last ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court affirming the right of colleges to consider race in admissions, Gallup conducted a poll of the public, with questions drafted in part by Inside Higher Ed. Nearly two-thirds of the public at that time said they disagreed with the Supreme Court. Asked about factors that should be considered in admissions decisions, only 9 percent said that race should be a major factor, and 27 percent said it should be considered a minor factor.
Prestigious Fairfax school ‘disproportionately deprived’ Asian Americans of a level playing field, according to ruling A federal judge ruled Friday that a new admissions system for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a prestigious magnet program in Fairfax, discriminates against Asian American applicants and must end. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton concluded that an effort to boost African American and Latino representation at TJ, as the school is known, constitutes an illegal act of “racial balancing.” He added that the school board altered the admissions process — eliminating a notoriously difficult test and a $100 application fee, choosing instead to evaluate students on “experience factors” such as socioeconomic background — in a rushed, sloppy and opaque manner. Hilton wrote that “emails and text messages between Board members and high-ranking FCPS officials leave no material dispute that, at least in part, the purpose of the Board’s admissions overhaul was to change the racial makeup to TJ to the detriment of Asian-Americans.”