Last updated on June 30, 2023
In 2014, a group called the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina under the accusation that Harvard was discriminating against Asian Americans. This race-based equality called affirmative action was created by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and stated that federal government contractors “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” This case was dismissed as they found no concrete evidence that Asian Americans were being discriminated against.
However, the efforts of the SFFA were not in vain, as they found something called personal ratings. These ratings, along with extracurricular and academic ratings, make up the student’s chances of getting into Harvard. The SFFA found that on average, Asian Americans had higher academic and extracurricular ratings, but significantly lower personal ratings. In addition, it was found that for some standardized testing scores, Harvard used different score cutoffs for each race, with Asian Americans being 1370 and White Americans being 1310.
Since this information was found during the trial, the SFFA was not able to properly use it to make their case, so in 2022, the SFFA again sued Harvard for this affirmative action. Using this evidence, along with other arguments, it is likely that the SFFA will win the trial, and race will no longer be a part of many college applications.
This decision will affect the admission chances of students across America. One of the projected impacts is that the admission rates of Black and Hispanic students will drop and the percentage of Asian Americans will rise. However, keep a keen eye on this case, as it is to be decided on June 30, 2023.
Sources:
Gersen, J. S. (2023, March 23). The secret joke at the heart of the Harvard affirmative-action case. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-secret-joke-at-the-heart-of-the-harvard-affirmative-action-case
NBCUniversal News Group. (2022, November 2). How Asian-led student groups are continuing affirmative action fight at Harvard and UNC. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/asian-led-student-groups-are-continuing-affirmative-action-fight-harva-rcna55071
Comments are closed.