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California V. Bakke Case Analysis

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For much of its history, American higher education was reserved for a select group of the nation’s population, namely white, affluent males. (Thelin, 2011) The 1800s saw the emergence of women’s and African American colleges, however, these minorities of higher education were often segregated to their own institutions, given curriculum based around trade work and discouraged from studying certain fields. (Thelin, 2011, pp. 55-102). By the year 1917, “college enrollments represented less than 5% of the American population of eighteen to twenty-two-year-olds” (Thelin, 2011, p. 169). Achieving diversity within the higher education classroom has not been an easy feat, and is something that college administrators are still actively working toward …show more content…
Bakke, a white applicant to the University of California, Davis, Allan Bakke, filed a law suit against the university claiming their admissions process violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (Marin & Horn, 2008, p. 2) The medical school had set racial quotas to allow 16 out of 100 spots in the program to be reserved specifically for minority students, a process Mr. Bakke argued to be “reverse discrimination.” (Stefoff, 2006, p. 6) Although the Supreme Court ultimately ruled this “quota system” was unconstitutional and ordered the university to admit Bakke into the medical program, the ruling also allowed for race to be considered an admission factor for the purpose of achieving a diverse student body. (Marin & Horn, 2008, p. …show more content…
(Marin & Horn, 2008, p. 2) In an article by The Chronicle of Education: A College Counselor’s View of Affirmative Action, (2012) a dean of college guidance at the Albuquerque Academy shared insight into how this type of affirmative action “plus system” is still utilized by college admissions departments today. “In practice, applicants are reviewed in light of all their contributions, or “pluses.” Minorities may receive a plus that non-minorities do not. Athletes may also receive a plus that those who play a musical instrument do not... But those pluses are not enough to admit students who are not qualified. And the pluses that underrepresented minorities receive take nothing away from the qualifications of majority students.” (Figueroa, 2012)
Aside from impacting the admissions process, the rational from the Bakke case has also been used to develop and justify supplemental programs and policies intended to expand access and equality for minority students in higher education. These efforts include race-conscious scholarships, recruitment practices that attend to race and summer bridge education opportunity programs. (Marin & Horn, 2008, p.

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