A University that Administrators Can Be Proud Of
Conservative critics regularly assail the University of California for its cartoonish devotion to diversity and the latest fads in political correctness. Mocking UC is practically Heather Mac Donald’s beat at City Journal and UC President Janet Napolitano’s recent campaign against “microaggressions”—including the allegedly offensive statement “America is the land of opportunity”—was roundly condemned by commentators across the spectrum, even the left-leaning Los Angeles Times. We expect as much from California, led by Governor Moonbeam, but what are we to make of the University of Texas at Austin’s increasingly desperate attempt to follow in UC Berkeley’s footsteps?
In recent years, UT-Austin has insisted on using race-conscious “holistic” admissions over and above the neutral “Top 10 Percent” rule that grants admission to the top graduates of every Texas high school, despite a legal challenge by Abigail Fisher (represented by the Project on Fair Representation) that is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court for the second time this term. UT has adamantly defended its use of race in admissions as necessary to achieve the purported “educational benefits of diversity,” even though its counterpart, Texas A&M, does not supplement the “Top 10 Percent” rule. Moreover, the student body at UT-Austin was more diverse under the pre-Grutter, unadorned “Top 10 Percent” rule than it was during the heyday of race-based affirmative action before it was banned (sadly, temporarily) by the Hopwood decision in 1996.
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