UM: Affirmative Action

NPR reports on the issue of affirmative action, recalling the Supreme Court case of Jennifer Gratz. Gratz applied to UM in 1995 and, after being rejected with a 3.8 GPA, sued the school for unfair affirmative action policies. In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the university’s right to pursue affirmative action policies, though not its use of an automatic race-point system. Essayist Tim Wise says most people misunderstand affirmative action: “The idea that colleges have to have a certain number of black students and certain number of Latino students just isn’t true. But the overwhelming majority of white folks in all the research I’ve seen believe those lies — believe those myths.” [Source]