In a pair of decisions, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in favor of affirmative action in higher education, but not without certain qualifiers, according to a Washington Post report.
In a 5-to-4 vote, the Court ruled to allow the University of Michigan's law school to approach enrollment by admitting a "critical mass" of blacks, Latinos and Native Americans. The school considers each applicant individually and sets no firm quota, according to the Post report.
However, a 6-to-3 majority rejected Michigan's undergraduate affirmative action program, which gives "under-represented" groups extra points on a scale used to rank applicants, according to the Post report.
This means that public schools are allowed to use race as a "plus factor" in the admissions process, but not on a point system.
The Court was optimistic, suggesting that in 25 years affirmative action programs might not be needed.
In light of these decisions, Ball State has reaffirmed its own stance.
Ball State does consider the race of each applicant but not with an elaborate point scale. Ball State considers academic success, leadership skills, test scores and each applicant's potential to overcome obstacles.
"We look at students holistically," Douglas McConkey, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, said. "We try to assess who would be successful at Ball State."
Anthony Casares, assistant director of the multicultural center, said the Early Outreach Program brings in many African Americans, Hispanics and Asians from Indiana locations with a high concentration of minorities, including Gary, South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.
"Ball State does a good job of bringing in a diverse group of students," Casares said.
While one can look around and see that Ball State is not very diverse (93 percent of the student body consists of white students, most from Indiana), one can take comfort knowing that the administration has good intentions with regard to diversity.
Intentions matter. But a point system is both excessive and unnecessary when less complicated policies can do the job.
While diversity is an important goal, such hard and fast methods are not race-neutral and take emphasis away from academic achievement.
This is another example of Ball State putting its emphasis in the right place.
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