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The "critical mass" mess.(Scan)
The Supreme Court's momentous split decision on the Michigan affirmative action case Cruller v. Bollinger read into our Constitution a new and potentially powerful justification for race-based quotas. Someday we may realize that Justice O'Connor's decision brief opened a door better left shut.
While supposedly striking down strict formulas for achieving affirmative action, the Grutter decision serves to make numerical targets for race-based enrollment newly defensible. In adopting the doctrine that diversity requires schools to attract a "critical mass" of minority students, the decision took a concept that had enjoyed little legal standing and stamped it with a Constitutional imprimatur. Schools, colleges, and universities can now argue that efforts to attract "enough" minority students do not reflect a race-based agenda but an adherence to the Court's ratification of the concept of "meaningful numbers."
O'Connor's decision argued that a "sufficient number" of underrepresented minorities are needed on campuses so that minority students don't feel isolated, and so that other students will have ample cross-racial experiences. Thus Michigan is empowered to seek "enough minority students to provide meaningful ...
- Engineering diversity. (minority students enrolled in Georgia Institute of...
- Magazine article from: U.S. News & World Report Cook, William J. March 22, 1993 700+ words
...Tech has big plans for minority students When Calvin Mackie was...says, to have both a critical mass of minority students who can support each other...increasingly tough market for top minority students. By the turn of the century...
- Race-based policy at school upheld; 'Critical mass' in enrollment cited.(NATION)
- Newspaper article from: The Washington Times May 15, 2002 700+ words
...ethnicity to achieve a diverse and robust student body only until it becomes possible to enroll a 'critical mass' of under-represented minority students through race-neutral means," the 6th Circuit said. Advocates used the diversity theory...
- Minority students' perceptions of their doctoral programs in special...
- Magazine article from: Journal of Teacher Education Wasburn-Moses, Leah November 1, 2007 700+ words
...a persistent overrepresentation of minority students in its K-12 student body, and many...programs in special education, most minority students do not have the option to attend historically...socialization, a lack of mentors and a critical mass of supportive and understanding ...
- Silence at Boalt Hall: the Dismantling of Affirmative Action.
- Magazine article from: California History de Graaf, L.B. March 22, 2004 700+ words
...protests on behalf of affirmative action. The case for diversity rests excessively on the idea that minority students need a "critical mass" of their race in order to feel comfortable, a premise documented largely by interviews with a few...
- Court takes up racial preferences in landmark case; Debate Tuesday on...
- Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor March 31, 2003 700+ words
...grant admission each year to a "critical mass" of qualified minority students. To reach that critical mass, the university must reject...the school seeks to admit a "critical mass" of minority students.) Opponents of the undergraduate...
- Affirmative action's future.(COMMENTARY)
- Newspaper article from: The Washington Times June 30, 2004 700+ words
...law school's practice of accepting enough minority students to form a "critical mass" for purposes of providing diversity of...holdings, Michigan shied away from the "critical mass" approach, as have dozens of other academic...
- UC to use special recruiting to retain minority students.(Originated from...
- Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Koury, Renee April 2, 1998 700+ words
...use special recruiting to retain minority students already admitted for next fall...Responding to a sharp decline in minority students admitted at Berkeley andLos Angeles...fund aimed especially at keeping minority students in the system. Among the tactics...
- OPINION DIVIDED ON RACE RELATIONS AT UW, MORE MINORITY STUDENTS THAN WHITES SEE...
- Newspaper article from: Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI) Rivedal, Karen April 17, 2004 700+ words
...Wisconsin State Journal Many more minority students than whites at UW-Madison -- over...university experience more highly than minority students, a recent survey found. In the...differences along racial lines continued. Minority students gave lower ratings to the quality...
