Affirmative Action in Colleges and Universities

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

2005

The term affirmative action ' was introduced by President Kennedy 's historic 1961 executive during the early years of civil rights movement in to gain equal opportunities for African Americans (Anderson , 1 . Columbia Encyclopedia gives the following definition of affirmative action - in the United States , programs to overcome the effects of past societal discrimination by allocating jobs and resources to members of specific groups , such as minorities and women . The end purpose is giving members of the society equal opportunities . The aim is good , which

does not guarantee that the means will be good too

Practically affirmative action has turned into a quota system with a range of preferential measures that included discrimination on non-minority citizens . Of course the ideal of equal opportunity merely requires that persons be treated in employment or admissions decisions without regard to their race or religion or sex , but not necessarily with the goal of attaining a certain proportional representation (Glenn Loury , U .S . Society Values USIA Electronic Journal , Vol . 2 , No . 3 August 1997 Race And Affirmative Action An interview with Professor Glenn Loury of Harvard University (1985

Loury also suggests that , providing proper education on the level of elementarily school , minority people will not need any quotas and the equality would be based on equal competition between individuals regardless of their race and gender . Nethertheless , in the majority of US universities dominates the opposite view . For example in the University of Georgia , there "for the last 26 years , has been given an objective numerical preference to minority students to try to rectify their segregated past " claims Lee Parks , the attorney for the three women challenging the University of Georgia 's policy , told CNN Tuesday June 17 , 2003 Posted : 12 :20 PM EDT (1620 GMT . He said , that " So you 've got 26 years of an unlevel playing field . At some point in time you 've got to take away the artificial construct and say , Let 's all play ball on a level playing field " That case went to the Supreme Court and even President Bush announced Wednesday his opposition to an affirmative action program at the University of Michigan that targets minority students . Bush called it "a quota system " that rejects or accepts students "based solely on race (CNN Thursday , January 16 , 2003 Posted 10 :09 AM EST (1509 GMT

Nevertheless , a conservative Supreme Court was unwilling to do away with the policy that had become widely established in American life (Anderson , 217-275 ) contradict with the sacred idea of diversity

Christopher Edley , a Harvard Law School professor and director of the task force which defined Clinton administration policy in the area of affirmative action , argues that what continues to be needed is not retreat from the principle , but adjustment and good sense , exactly what President Clinton called for when he declared that affirmative action has always been good for America . Mend it , but don 't end it (Edley pp . 13-15

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