What about intellectual diversity? Since a large chunk of our intelligence is genetically determined, UoM should allow extra points for morons. All in the name of diversity, of course.
I realize you were joking, but I'll try another tangent. It is not diversity for diversity sake, but diversity for the betterment of all students. And, addressing another point made here, it is not so important that a minority with a Harvard degree devote their life to defending similar minorities. Rather, I think it is important for the educated to have been exposed to minority groups during the matriculative process. The goal of this would be to create a more tolerant student body, one which as a whole would practice law with greater regard for this nation's diverse population. This decision has a direct negative impact on my life, seeing as how I will be applying to law schools and am not a minority. However, in an indirect way I feel I may benefit from the court's decision. Aside from the theoretical notions I have presented I also have personal experience which leads me to make these assertions. I grew up in a relatively homogeneous neighborhood. Although I never found myself obscenely racist or prejudice, I did notice some borderline beliefs which I changed after having lived with a minority for 5 years of college (yes, 5 years). -rlb
rlb, Iam glad to see that you are an example of the study I cited. Racial diversity produced no educational effects but did tend to produce students who espoused more pc positions. You seem to think this is a good thing, but then you have been subjected to 5 years of brainwashing. Don't worry, after you've been out in the workplace for five or six years, you'll probably start thinking for yourself again. Ironic that all this time the universities claimed they were the ones who taught people how to think. Instead they just coerce you into what to say. You seem to subconsciously regard minorities as like some kindof exotic fertilizer the administration scatters around campus for the benefit of the real students, most of whom apparently have never talked to a minority. No wonder the minorities are resentful and want their own residence halls.
I did read in the media that at least O'Connor capped the institutionalized handout program at an additional 25 years. Maybe there's hope yet that at least some of our white grandchildren won't be discriminated against.
Social deprivation should be taken more account of than color... a poor black or white kid from a drug, gun and gang soaked high school should be offered an admissions point headstart over a black or white kid whose dad runs the trading floor at an investment bank and gets $30 million a year... now if the rich, privileged kid still scores higher after the social deprivation rating, the privileged kid should get in, not the deprived kid...
Instead of going off on tangents, why not just refute the points from the judgements... http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=02-516 And the dissenting viewpoints... http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=02-241#dissent1 Found from CNN's page: http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/23/scotus.affirmative.action/index.html
picknclick, thankyou for the links. I have not finished reading yet, but have read a fact I had forgotten. This case was concerning a public school and so the standards are different. Under the principle that public institutions should serve the public good, whether or not a diverse student body serves the public for good becomes paramount. AAA, here is where you would make your case. I can see this is a rather emotionally charged issue for you, but if you can calm down I'll certainly give your arguments thorough consideration. candle, your example seems absurd at first glance, but it is valid. From what I recall, so long as your methods of selection do not create a bias of selection which negatively impact the protected groups then such methods are permissable. And, I believe this is determined by analyzing the composition of prospective applicants as compared to the selected applicants. This applies to private institutions and apparently, to a lesser degree, to public institutions.
Wow, AAA -- have you walked outside your front door at all in the past 30 years?? It must be really something being the world's smartest guy. You are apparently smarter than all university faculty and staff put together. They've got the whole "thinking" thing wrong, and by god, I am so glad that you have set the record straight here on a message board. Man, yours is THE BEST FREE ADVICE that I have ever read on a public forum, and for that I must thank you. To think that I have SQUANDERED money and time on education, when I could've just come to ET and learned everything from AAA makes me wonder why I didn't do so earlier... "The World According to AAA" must be a very paranoid and frightened place... It must be a fun world to live in where everyone is white and conforms to what you think is appropriate for them to think and say. And it is a great thing that you have made the distinction for us between "minorities" and "real students." I'm sure all of the top universities share your thoughts on that distinction. I think I heard somewhere that those top universities were going to make the minority students all wear badges just in case they aren't dark enough to be identified by security. This way, they can keep closer tabs on them. Universities are not the problem -- people like you are. It's no wonder that people can't think for themselves about the economy or the war also suffer from the same pervasive opacity in most other aspects of their lives. $60billion points of light baby... If I had a nickel for every stupid white kid whose daddy bought his way into college, I could take off all of July. Hail dubya!!!
Good point, bungrider... statistically, its actually the minority students who have both the best results (the Chinese minority on average do far better academically than their white friends) and the worst results (the black and hispanic minorities)... to classify the minorities as somehow homogeneous is crude at best... interestingly, the differential in academic performance holds both at high school (where students have widely different levels of social deprivation and a widely different quality of teaching), and at university (all students have basically the same living conditions and the same people teaching them their course)... maybe there is a significant differential in the work ethic between the successful and the less successful minorities, resulting from varying cultural attitudes to education amongst different races... and maybe that difference in work ethic is what results in differential levels of social deprivation if we accept that education and social deprivation are inversely correlated... so (at the macro level) maybe using even social deprivation (as a more politically correct alternative to color) makes little sense... this debate is indeed a tough one to crack, leaving anyone who is prepared to argue against points-based admissions (using color as an input) unfairly open to accusations of being a racist...
I think that is another stereotype. There seems to be a stereotype that Chinese / Asian students are better with engineering and mathematics than their anglo-saxon counterparts. Personally, I think judging whether someone should be enrolled by anything other than academic performance is setting a bad precedent. Are they going to start using affirmitative action for fat and ugly people? There has been countless studies showing ugly people get discriminated against.