Opinion ID: 392342
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ASU's Affirmative Action Plan.

Text: 15 ASU's affirmative action plan set a goal 15 of raising the percentage of blacks on the faculty to a total of five per cent by 1979. 16 To reach this goal, ASU planned that 25 per cent of the faculty hired between 1976 and 1979 would be black. These goals do not exceed reasonable efforts to remedy ASU's past discrimination. In 1976, when Valentine was not hired for the position, ASU had 10 black faculty members among a total faculty of 296 (3.4% of faculty was black). Upon Adena Williams' retirement, the Business College had no black faculty members. If Valentine had been rehired, the Business College would have continued to have no black faculty members at least until the next vacancy occurred. ASU attracts students from an area which has a population which is approximately 23.6% black. We find that the plaintiff has failed to show that ASU's goals exceed those which would be substantially related to ASU's legitimate purpose. 16 ASU's 25% hiring goal is neither permanent nor even long lasting. Instead, ASU's plan extends over a four-year period and contemplates the achievement of a modest increase in black faculty members. Nothing about the duration of the plan suggests any purpose other than a remedial one and Valentine has not shown that the period of the plan exceeds the time substantially necessary for achieving the plan's remedial purpose. 17 An affirmative action plan may be constitutionally infirm if it unduly stigmatizes either the beneficiaries or the persons disadvantaged by the plan. Bakke, 438 U.S. at 374-75, 98 S.Ct. at 2791-2792. But a plan designed to eliminate past racial discrimination is not invalid merely because some innocent persons bear the brunt of the racial preference. Fullilove, 448 U.S. at 484, 100 S.Ct. at 2777-2778. So long as a plan does not result in the hiring of unqualified persons, we conclude that any stigma caused by the plan is constitutionally acceptable. Members of the majority group are rarely, if ever, stigmatized by operation of a racial preference; it is hard for us to believe that people will treat Bonnie Valentine as a second class person because a black person was hired instead of her. The more serious risk of stigma is with the successful minority applicant. The absence not the presence of affirmative action stigmatizes minority groups, by perpetuating the disadvantages of minorities. When an institution remedies its past wrongs by providing opportunities for members of previously victimized groups it does not stigmatize those groups. Where the applicant is qualified, the risk of stigma is considerably less because presumably the person can perform the task adequately. The evidence in this case shows not only that Georgia Mitchell was fully qualified for the job but also she performed very well as a teacher. We cannot invalidate ASU's affirmative action plan, or its application to the facts here, on the supposition that someone might be stigmatized. 18 ASU's affirmative action plan does not require firing any employees to make room for minority applicants. Nor does the plan deprive innocent persons of employment rights or benefits they already enjoyed. The plan contemplates that only 25% of new faculty over a four-year period will be black; we cannot say that this plan completely bars whites from faculty positions. 19 In summary, because we find ASU's affirmative action goals substantially related to the legitimate goal of ending and remedying previous racial discrimination, because the plan does not require the hiring of unqualified persons, because it is temporary, and because it does not completely bar whites or otherwise invidiously trammel their interests, we conclude that ASU's plan, on its face, is a constitutionally permissible solution to a difficult problem. United States v. City of Miami, 614 F.2d at 1338-40; Detroit Police Officers' Ass'n v. Young, 608 F.2d at 696. 17 20