Affirmative Action

Affirmative action is the college admissions policy that allows for race to be a consideration when a college makes an admissions decision. This is one of the policies that is working to increase and promote diversity in the college setting. It is my contention that diversity should be able to play a role in the college that a student attends, and that race is one of the many factors that should be allowed to be considered when a college is considering a student for admission. However, it is important to realize that it is not my belief that every university should be forced to consider the criterion of race when considering a student, but I do think that it should be a factor that colleges are universally permitted to consider when looking at potential students. The purpose of any college is to educate its students. To do so, colleges bring in the students who best promote its purpose. Virtually every school in the nation realizes that diversity of some sort is ideal when it comes to college and that it should play a part in the admissions process, which is why it constantly does. However, for some reason, some believe that specifically race shouldn"t be a consideration when it comes to diversity, whereas many other factors are considered when it comes to diversity. There is simply no logic to the argument that race should not be considered when one looks at all of the other factors that are considered to promote diversity. I would like to clarify that I am not arguing the belief that affirmative action should be upheld to placate past injustices or to make up for educational differences, but I am arguing that it should be upheld to promote diversity in the college environment, as it is an important part of the educational process. Students not only learn from their teachers, but they also learn much from their peers, and they will learn more if these peers represent different genders, locations, socioeconomic statuses, races and so on. Colleges operate upon a system that selects the students who will be the best "fit" for that school. To do this, they must go beyond test scores and GPAs to do so. This includes considering the interests, hobbies, location, sex, socioeconomic status, athletic abilities of the student, and even whether or not the student"s parents attended the university. If all of these factors, some arbitrary and others not, are already considered, why should race not be considered a viable criterion to consider? If affirmative action policies are unfair, then all of these other policies should be considered unfair, and colleges should simply select students based upon GPA and test scores. However, we know that these two factors are not the only things that determine whether the student is the best fit for the college and also that they do not necessarily determine academic promise or promote the goal of education. I would like to make it clear that I do not believe affirmative action should work in such a way that it allows undeserving minorities into universities simply because of their skin color. I believe that all applicants should be able to handle the work given at the university, but race should be a factor when considering whether a student is determined as a "fit" for the college or not. To further my argument, I will cite an affirmative action case where a student complained about the affirmative action policies in place at Harvard College. Harvard gave the following rationale for its policies in 1978 (and they won): "We care about diversity. Scholarly excellence alone has never been the sole criterion for admission to Harvard College. 15 years ago, diversity meant students from California and New York and Massachusetts; city dwellers and farm boys, violinists and painters and football players, biologists, historians and classicists. The only difference now," Harvard argued, "is that we"re adding racial and ethnic status to this long list of diversity considerations. When reviewing the large number of candidates able to do well in our classes race may count as a plus, just as coming from Iowa may count or being a good middle linebacker or pianist. A farm boy from Idaho can bring something to Harvard College that a Bostonian cannot offer. Similarly, a black student can usually bring something a white student cannot offer. The quality of the educational experience of all students depends in part on these differences in the background and outlook that these students bring with them." (http://racism.org...) The people from Harvard have figured it out, and I think it is time for the rest of us to do so, as well. A diverse student body at college is one that will be beneficial to all of the students who attend, it will expand the students" worldliness, enhance social development, prepare students for future career success, increase knowledge base, promote creative thinking, and enhance the multiple perspectives given by a liberal arts education. If you care about the quality of education in colleges today, you agree with the idea that diversity should be promoted in a college environment, and that race is one of the many ways to do so.