Now that the Supreme Court has finally said “no” to university admissions policies that discriminate on the basis of race, how are universities responding?
Today, the Martin Center published a letter by Walter L. Smith of the Jefferson Council of the University of Virginia to the university’s president, James E. Ryan. Smith is not content with the university’s stated plans for compliance with the Court’s decision.
The university said that it would comply, but would keep right on striving for “diversity,” which is supposedly crucial to education. Smith observes that the only diversity the university appears to care about is racial diversity, but fixating on that will continue to overlook excellent students who don’t have the right sort of ancestry.
Smith writes:
Indeed, if the university is truly committed to admissions processes that are in full compliance with the Constitution, then administrators and the Board of Visitors (i.e., the trustees) should do the following:
- abolish all racial or ethnic check-boxes on the application (not just hide them from view by some);
- abolish the collection of racial or ethnic classifications by any other means;
- take down and permanently prohibit any further use of the UVA Diversity Dashboard.
So long as racial/ethnic data are collected, no one in Virginia can be confident that racial preferences will be, or have been, abolished at UVA.
That’s a good idea. Evaluate students without first asking about race. Only then can we be certain that the school is choosing the best applicants and not trying to fill hidden racial quotas.