It's not hard to miss if you turn on any news station or happen to look at any news website. It is the top story on CNN, google news, BBC news and many more. The Supreme Court has just recently announced that they will be hosting the Fisher v. Texas Case in October 2012. And yes, Texas as in The University of Texas.
Abigail Fisher, a soon to be college graduate from LSU, is suing the University of Texas and their use of affirmative action which caused her to be denied from the University after applying. Abigail was near the top 10% cut off and displayed all of the necessary credentials to be a UT student, yet like many students each year, she was not accepted into the University. Although in 2003 Universities were told they were allowed to take race into account to ensure academic diversity which was supposed to be a ruling held for the next 25 years, the Supreme court has surprisingly decided to take on this case meaning Abigail must have quite the argument.
Personally, I have always felt that it was unfair for racial questions to be mentioned on an application of any sort. I don't think it should matter what race you are. If you have the credentials to be a student there then you should get in, regardless of the background you come from. I think out of schools in Texas, UT has the best chance of having a diversified student body due to the top 10% rule. The top students from every school in the state of Texas are given the opportunity to attend UT, including schools in lower income areas to high paying private schools.
What I find most interesting about this whole scenario is how The University of Texas is going to handle this publicly. UT is no doubt being put in a negative light here in the majority of the reports and it will be fascinating to see how they overcome this crisis. If it is proven that the university has in fact been taking race into a large account of the application process, it could prove that we haven't made as much progress in the fight against racial discrimination as we thought we have over the years.
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