These goals and timetables would be achieved by enhancing the interviewing and hiring skills of managers and using search firms with proven records of recruiting a diversity of employees. Because during that 29-year period, the university community had taken affirmative steps to recruit and admit more minorities. Although affirmative action in education came under early legal attack, its constitutionality was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1974 in the case of Univ. This argument is absurd and distorts the way affirmative action works. In evaluating each applicant, race may tip the balance in his or her favor, just as coming from a particular geographic region might.
Race can be a plus, but only if the applicant possesses the qualifications for admission.
This persistent gap tells us that affirmative action in higher education is still needed. The law of affirmative action has been evolving since the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Affirmative action plans are sometimes court imposed and other times they are adopted on a voluntary basis. Be temporary, lasting no longer than necessary to remedy the discrimination. Although the ACLU and other civil rights organizations have criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for sometimes unduly restricting affirmative action, the Court remains committed to principle and has never ruled that affirmative action itself is unconstitutional.