A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the University of Texas at Austin's consideration of race in admissions, Inside Higher Ed reported.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public colleges could consider race in admissions, but only under strict conditions. The Supreme Court instructed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which had previously upheld the admissions policy, to review the case anew and to apply stricter scrutiny to its evaluation of the program.
In its decision this week, the three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit court ruled 2-to-1 that the policy was constitutional. The original challenged focused, in large part, on UT-Austin's use of the "10 percent" plan, which guarantees the top graduates of every high school a spot at public colleges and universities in the state. The appeals court said that just because the institution could rely on the percent plan alone to increase diversity, it is not prevented from doing more.
"While the Top Ten Percent Plan boosts minority enrollment by skimming from the tops of Texas high schools, it does so against this backdrop of increasing resegregation in Texas public schools, where over half of Hispanic students and 40 percent of black students attend a school with 90 percent - 100 percent minority enrollment," the judges wrote.
"We are persuaded that to deny UT Austin its limited use of race in its search for holistic diversity would hobble the richness of the educational experience in contradiction of the plain teachings of Bakke and Grutter."
The university's president, William C. Powers Jr., applauded the decision in a statement, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. "This ruling ensures that our campus, our state, and the entire nation will benefit from the exchange of ideas and thoughts that happens when students who are diverse in all regards come together in the classroom, at campus events, and in all aspects of campus life."
The plaintiff, Abigail N. Fisher, whom the university had rejected for admission, said in a statement that she planned to appeal the ruling: "It is disappointing that the judges hearing my case are not following the Supreme Court's ruling last summer. I remain committed to continuing this lawsuit even if it means we appeal to the Supreme Court once again."
Related Links
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Decision
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/09/09-50822-CV2.pdf
Inside Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/07/15/appeals-court-upholds-u-texas-affirmative-action-policy#sthash.qKpWqZw0.6tZPr3GJ.dpbs
The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-texas-affirmative-action-program-is-upheld-by-appeals-court/81997