The future of diversity

Parents Forum
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https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/12/class-based-affirmative-action/419307/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/02/the-rise-of-first-generation-college-students/470664/
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/04/20/admissions-sharpens-outreach-to-low-income-students/

“Today’s debate isn’t so much about whether racial and ethnic diversity is an important and desirable goal… The debate, instead, has shifted to the questions of how universities achieve diversity—the key issue in Fisher II… And the court has held that the “path to leadership” should be open to students of all backgrounds.”

“Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which applies to all universities (including private institutions) that receive public funding. Universities, the courts have held, can only use race when it is “necessary” to promote diversity…Given (Judge) Kennedy’s legal stance, affirmative-action policies at selective colleges are very vulnerable. Universities generally don’t use race as a last resort.”

“Sometime before the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to rule in a challenge to racial preferences in admissions in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas II. Supporters of affirmative action are pessimistic about their prospects. At oral arguments in December, it appeared that the justices were lining up 5-3 against Texas’s use of race in admissions. (Justice Elena Kagan is recused.) With the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the vote is still likely to be 4-3 against UT Austin.”

“So what will future of affirmative action look like if Fisher II significantly curtails the ability of universities to employ race in admissions?.. Halley Potter has found that in the 10 states where racial affirmative action was dropped, eight states adopted class-based affirmative action programs.”

Class-based diversity is not entirely new at elite universities:

“When the ambassador program launched in 2005, Yale did not have comprehensive data on where high-achieving, low-income students lived… The number of high schools visited by ambassadors has gone up from a mere 230 in academic year 2005–06 to 722 in the last academic year. The number of Yale students logging visits has nearly tripled from 130 to 319 in the same period.”

“Over the past four years, Yale has seen a 36 percent increase in the number of African-Americans applying, as well as an 18 percent increase in applications from members of an ethnic minority and a 12 percent increase from students who are the first in their family to attend college. By contrast, Yale’s total applications from the U.S. have risen 5 percent. Dunn said that while there is no set measure of socioeconomic diversity in a student body, one potential measure is the number of first-generation students enrolled.”

It appears that first-generation is a convenient measure of social-economic status.

“In the past, organizing students around low-income status has been tricky…Hence the new effort to organize around “first-generation college status.” Barros told me that organizing around poverty makes some people uncomfortable, but that celebrating advancement—being the first in one’s family to attend college—has much broader acceptance.”

What do you think: class-based diversity vs. race-based diversity?

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Both bring a variety of perspectives and should be welcomed.

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California has historically been committed to higher educational opportunity for students from lower SES families. This has intensified since race and ethnicity were disallowed as considerations in 1998. Perhaps the results in the public universities (e.g. high percentage of Pell grant students) can be observed as a natural experiment.

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I have supported race-based AA in admissions for decades. But the Fisher 2 case made me finally change my mind.

Because in Fisher 2, UT/Austin actually argued that the reason for their race-based (rather than class-based) system (which was upheld in the SCOTUS decision) was so that UT would be able to admit more “African-American or Hispanic child[ren] of successful professionals in Dallas.”

Basically, UT said it needed AA in order to enroll more middle/upper class URM students.

That told me it was time to move on.

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class

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I think class is the bigger/more universal force, but attempts to deal with class that ignore race are doomed to failure–while race overlaps with class, it’s also a separate factor.

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^That would depend on how you define success and failure. If the aim is to get a higher % of low SES students, then targetting 1st generation may be an effective way to do it.

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Good point–I define it as “a more egalitarian system” that produces some redress for groups that have been historically marginalized.

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Race is more of a hot button to most people, since racism is an attack on your being, rather than an attack on something you may be doing. So even if class (including mobility and opportunity versus inheritance) is a bigger factor in economic outcomes, race may still be more of a hot button to many people.

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SES?

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SES = SocioEconomic Status.

I think using both race and SES, combined with other factors, are what bring the diversity elite colleges are striving to attain. It levels a playing field that otherwise would only admit wealthy students who have the privilege of attending top schools. That being said, I also think it’s somewhat easier to implement when colleges have the benefit of being able to assemble a class from a large pool of qualified candidates. What works at Yale, UT or Michigan is not going to be the same at colleges with fewer qualified applicants in the mix, yet less selective colleges will be subject to the same laws.

From everything I have read, Miss Fisher’s accomplishments were not stellar and were near the bottom of applicants the year she applied to UT.

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It’s tough. I know someone who qualified as “first gen.” It’s true that neither parent went to college, but I know 3 of 4 grandparents did.

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If you use race without SES/class, that means you are trying to attract more middle/upper class kids with minority racial backgrounds. In the Fisher 2 case, UT was very up front about what its goal was – to enroll the kids of black docs/lawyers living in the Dallas suburbs.

For me, promoting that version of diversity isn’t valuable enough to offset the baggage that comes along with using that type of “race and only race matters” type of preference.

I’d leave it with just poor kids (white or black or other) get preference over middle/upper kids (white or black or other).

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SES distributions are still extremely skewed toward the high end at elite colleges. Typically, about half of students do not get financial aid (which typically means family income in the top few percent), while the percentage on Pell grants is commonly only in the 10-20% range (much lower than the 33% of college students overall who receive Pell grants, or the probable 40-50% of families whose kids would be eligible if college attendance rates were uniform over the income range).

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@northwesty https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/university-of-texas-at-austin
According to this Ut Austin is only 4% back. I do think that it is worth increasing that no matter what jobs their parents are in. Either that or increase the financial aid budget so that poorer auto admits can afford to attend.

edited to add: according to that same source only 68% of need is met.

It is all very good to say that socioeconomic diversity is the ideal but without the means to make it affordable it is never going to happen. Something has to change in the state funding.

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@tutumom2001

Thank you! re: SES

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Snowball – Reasonable people can differ on how important different kinds of diversity are and what type of methods should be used to achieve them.

But I think most would agree that this is certainly one of the weaker arguments in favor of race-based AA:

"As UT put it in its brief in Fisher I, the race-based component of its admissions plan is needed to admit “[t]he African-American or Hispanic child of successful professionals in Dallas.”

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MODERATOR’S NOTE: There is ONE thread on CC where AA discussion is allowed. I am closing this thread.