Affirmative Action

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Affirmative Action for Higher Education

An effort to provide good employment and better educational opportunities to members of minority groups or women is termed as Affirmative Action. The word was first heard in 1961 when John F. Kennedy ordered affirmative action to support fair and equal opportunities for racial minorities, in hiring by the federal contractors (Murphy 515). In the coming years, it only became wide and  is enforced by the Government. It has significantly increased the opportunities for Afro-Americans, however, this policy has  also been under complaints by whites that the Afro-Americans are benefiting from this.

The reason of creating such policy was to tame the past discrimination acts by allocation of minorities and women in jobs and resources (Fleming). The federal agencies provided funds to government contractors and educational institutions to develop such  programs and The Equal Employment Opportunities Act formed a commission to enforce this policy. Formation of quota system which was racial based brought up the reverse discrimination in the 70s. A situation arose when the Supreme Court in the case of University of California VS Bake (Solomon and Heeter 41).  Allen Bake was rejected twice while members of other racial minorities were accepted with lower scores. Allen, said that this act is against the equal protection clause. Finally, the court ordered that Allen Bake should be admitted. 

It is concluded that, the universities can consider race and ethnicity as a factor, but cannot  fix quotas regarding it (Shea 587). This decision of the Supreme Court was enforced with more strict clause in 2013 which stated that the approval of consideration of race in educational institutions accepts somebody on the basis of race, it must be because there was no other way to achieve that diversity.

Works cited

Fleming, John E. "The Case for Affirmative Action for Blacks in Higher Education." ERIC, (1978): Print.

Murphy, Tanya Y. "Argument for Diversity Based Affirmative Action in Higher Education, An." Ann. Surv. Am. L., (1995): 515. Print.

Shea, Jennifer L. "Percentage Plans: An Inadequate Substitute for Affirmative Action in Higher Education Admissions." Ind. LJ, 78. (2003): 587. Print.

Solomon, Lewis D and Judith S Heeter. "Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Towards a Rationale for Preference." Notre Dame L., 52. (1976): 41. Print.