This past Monday began the long-awaited federal trial into Harvard University’s admissions policy of disfavoring certain minority groups and favoring others in the interest of fashioning a diverse student body. The plaintiffs are Asian-Americans who were rejected by Harvard and who charge that Harvard holds Asian-Americas to higher standards for admission in comparison to other races, and that it employs racial balancing. If all applicants for admission were to be judged by the same standards, there would be a lot more Asian-Americans in Harvard’s student body, they claim.
Federal law has been interpreted as allowing the use of race as one factor in the admission process but not the only or primary one.
However, according to the New York Times, documents submitted by Harvard showed that generally in 2013, potential applicants whose race was listed as white, Asian, “other,” or “unknown” needed a score of at least 1350 (for women) or 1380 (for men) on the Preliminary SAT exam as a threshold criterion, while black, Hispanic, Native American or other minority students of either sex needed a score of 1100 or better.
Further, according to The Times, in certain rural areas of the country, white students and those who listed “other” or “unknown” as their race qualified for the threshold with scores as low as 1310, a break that was not given to Asian-Americans.
The trial is in its preliminary stages, but depending on what all of the evidence will show, with Justice Kavanaugh’s joining the Supreme Court, the prospect of a restriction on the use of so-called affirmative action – in reality, reverse discrimination – may really be in the offing.