The Compelling Need for Research on the Benefits of Racial Diversity in Higher Education and What Will Happen if Higher Education Fails To Make the Case for Diversity.

N

26

Access to Education; Affirmative Action; Black Community; Black Education; Blacks; College Admission; College Desegregation; Compliance (Legal); Court Litigation; Desegregation Litigation; Desegregation Plans; Diversity (Student); Equal Education; Higher Education; Minority Groups; Nondiscriminatory Education; Racial Composition; Racial Integration; Racially Balanced Schools; State Courts

Hopwood v Texas; Proposition 209 (California 1996)

This paper argues that without affirmative action, integration of American higher education would halt and resegregation would accelerate with each generation. The first section of the paper is an annotated bibliography of affirmative action in higher education; it cites books, articles and monographs, and two Web sites. The second section of the paper reviews the legal principles of affirmative action, offering quotations and legal citations from many sources to define the terms "strict scrutiny," compelling institutional interest, and "narrowly tailored." It concludes that student-body diversity may be the only avenue that can withstand judicial assault but warns that such a policy must be narrowly tailored. A third section examines the gradual erosion of the diversity rationale during the 1990s, citing court attacks on affirmative action, including Hopwood v. Texas; California's Proposition 209; and rulings in Texas and other states. It concludes that institutions must offer compelling evidence that diversity is essential to the achievement of higher education's mission. The next section examines some recent books and student surveys that support an affirmative action and examines the question of whether there is an effective surrogate for race, concluding that only through affirmative action can adequate services be provided to minority communities. (CH)

2001

ED443372