The primary purpose of affirmative action is to expand the opportunities of minority students at universities and colleges, but instead it has hindered the opportunities of other students on the same campuses.
The admission standards of colleges and universities should be based on knowledge and achievement, not on race.
It is wonderful to give all races the same chances to further their educations at the best academic institutions, but to base those chances on the quota that a particular student fulfills is another form of discrimination. Who is to say that a student with a lower grade point average should take the position of another, more qualified student, at that college because of their race?
What’s needed instead is a thorough reconsideration of “our collective notion of fairness and or society’s duty to uphold it,” according to a column by Gregory Rodriguez in the January 26 edition of the Los Angeles Times.
President Bush is not only trying to shoot down affirmative action, but he is trying to devise alternate plans that will create equal opportunities based on academic achievements. Bush’s recently proposed “percent plans” would guarantee the admission of students who are in the top percent of their high school graduating class and would reward students based on their achievements and success instead of their race.
According to a new Los Angeles Times poll, Americans would approve by 2 to1 of Bush’s call to strike down the race-based admissions policy at the University of Michigan.
Race should not be an issue at all when it comes to admission policies at colleges. All students should be given an equal opportunity. It was called racism when minorities were denied a college education in favor of whites. Now that is called affirmative action when whites are denied college admission in favor of minorities.