Univ. of Georgia, Post-Affirmative Action

Nick Gillespie | June 6, 2003

The AP files this interesting report on the effect of ending affirmative action in admissions at the University of Georgia. Two years ago, a federal court barred preferential admissions based on race. As of last fall, black enrollment stood at 5.5 percent, down from 6.2 percent in 1988 (as a state, Georgia is about 27 percent black).

The low numbers come in the face of aggressive recruitment of black students. UGA has been finding it difficult to enroll academically superior blacks, who seem to be choosing to go elsewhere, both for academic and other reasons, including the smalltown location of Athens. Georgia State University, based in Atlanta, doesn't seen to be having the same problems. The story also touches on Florida's experience post-affirmative action, which seems to be working very well.

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Joe Dokes|6.6.03 @ 1:35AM|#

Here in California we banned racial preferences in public colleges and universities a couple of years ago, guess what, the number of black students increased. While the numbers at the most selective universities like UCLA and Berkeley did decline, the overall number of students of color increased.

Regards

Joe

Nick Gillespie|6.6.03 @ 1:51AM|#

Philip Elliott: Thanks for the correction, which has been made.

omnibus bill|6.6.03 @ 2:13AM|#

If colleges want to get a cross-section of society admitted, Texas, Florida's and California's programs are a decent place to look. Why is this an important issue for libertarians? Simple. If you don't like the look of the moneyed, liberal elite, and the country club Republicans, it doesn't hurt to find a better way of letting a broader cross-section of people into the economic "club" that top schools promise.

For example, Texas admits the top 10% of high school students to any school in the UT system, with UT Austin being the campus of choice. (They have also used distance learning technology to leverage AP courses into poor schools, K-12 reform, and they use socioeconomic preferences from time to time, so the admissions pipeline is getting stronger).

Texas's program clearly brings a much more truly "diverse" student body into the elite college at Austin; instead of Black, White and Hispanic suburbanites with similar outlooks and backgrounds, students from all over the state get in -- including kids from rural and urban areas who didn't stand a chance in the past.

UT Austin, for example, went from being comprised almost exclusively from the students from the top 50 high schools in Texas, to students from several hundred high schools. While the SAT scores of many of the new cohort of students are lower, they seem to be sticking around and finishing their degrees in numbers equal to, or greater than, kids who used to be admitted from the top 50 high schools. Why is that? UT System President Larry Faulkner chalks it up to the work ethic of students who finish in the top 10% of their class, along with the fact that SAT scores may not reflect your talent if you are graduating from a lousy school system. Faulkner says that for admissions purposes and predicting success in undergrad, being in the top 10% of one's high school class is probably equivalent to 200 - 300 points on the SAT.

Why are the 10 percenters so successful? Well, they have the work ethic, for one thing. Another factor is that racial preferences typically favor middle class Black and Hispanic students, who really don't need a lot of boosting and who may not appreciate the value of the opportunity that is handed to them. At the same time, students from the bottom economic quartile have a persistence rate of 90% - that means 90% finish college within 6 years. Middle and upper class students have a persistence rate of around 70%, and minority students admitted through racial preferences have around a 55% persistence rate. So the success rate of the Texas 10% program probably stems from (1) getting hard working students into school; and (2) the motivation that comes from having a shot to leave a hardscrabble existence behind.

This suggests that racial preferences in education aren't only odious, but they are ineffective compared to race neutral measures, at least in some states like Texas. And if a racial preference isn't as effective as race neutral measures, then it's unconstitutional, as it's not narrowly tailored...

I don't really care about equality of outcomes; that's on the individual. But as long as governments at every level are in the education business, it seems to me that this is one way of levelling out real, existing inequalities in the educational system. It does so without using race, and for that reason alone is worth a shot. A step in the right direction is often better than waiting silently for a great leap forward that never arrives...

|6.6.03 @ 2:24AM|#

Nick: Your welcome. I know it's a little picky, but let's just call that my anal moment of the day.

As a graduate of GSU (96), it's a very diverse campus. I have no idea what there AA policy is, but they never lacked variety in the student body when I was there.

|6.6.03 @ 10:03AM|#

I believe that's Georgia State University

Madog|6.6.03 @ 10:22AM|#

I don't blame them, based on conversations with various black friends and coworkers when I lived in Florida, Atlanta seems to be the center of Southern Black Urban culture.

omnibus bill|6.6.03 @ 10:39AM|#

The Department of Education has a report on racially neutral approaches to admit a broader cross section of society into selective universities here. It seems to be a preliminary report, but the numbers look promising. It also appears that there are more ways to successfully reach out to traditionally underserved groups of students than just recruiting.

|6.9.03 @ 9:00AM|#

omnibus bill:

Great post, thank you. That sounds like a really great program; seems perfectly crafted to get the best results and give the opportunities not only to those who most need it, but those that will actually do the most with it. Do you have any further information or links about it?

|6.9.03 @ 11:45AM|#

Libertoids,

It is indeed interesting to read about how the 10% rule is working out. The best way to achieve diversity is very much an open question.

But in previous AA threads, most of the arguments I've read were not based on practicality, but on principle - principles of meritocracy and fairness. Why is ok with you to ignore meritocracy in favor of an arbitrary line (eg, I was 11th out of 100. Why don't I get in?), but not ok when it is done on the basis of race and ethnicity?

Petersen Dave|9.10.04 @ 12:24AM|#

EMAIL: nospam@nospampreteen-sex.info
IP: 61.30.127.4
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DATE: 05/21/2004 01:14:16
Insanity is forgetting to believe a few lies.

Iturralde Lucilla|9.10.04 @ 12:24AM|#

EMAIL: draime2000@yahoo.com
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