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Articles
Scales need balance
Judging students on 'merit' should require looking at what they have accomplished and overcome
Published on: 12/03/04
One University of Georgia sophomore, reacting to the news Wednesday that UGA plans to resume using race as an admissions factor, voiced a common and understandable view: Entry to the state's flagship campus should be "strictly merit-based."But how is merit measured? By what you have achieved, or by what you have overcome? More specifically, does the presence of thousands of middle- and upper-class white students at UGA reflect merit, or prior advantage?In recent years, UGA's growing prestige has attracted more and more children of privilege and affluence, students who have had every opportunity and in most cases done well with it. Many are products of high-per-forming suburban schools, summer enrichment programs and $600 SAT prep classes to push their scores from 1100 to 1200.Under race-neutral admissions, those advantaged applicants are deemed more meritorious than African-American students from low-performing schools who excelled without access to academic summer camps or Princeton Review classes.Because a federal appeals court in 2001 ruled that UGA's affirmative action admissions policy was unconstitutional, the school had to stop giving potential students any extra points because of race. (UGA also gave an edge to students whose parents had attended UGA, which basically translated to affirmative action for some white students, since black Georgians were denied admittance to UGA until 1961.)Rather than challenge the court decision, UGA committed to search for ways to ensure that Athens did not become a white enclave. In the meantime, African-American enrollment fell. Today's UGA freshman class of 4,500 has only 200 African-Americans, partly because of admissions practices and partly because black students have not felt welcome at Athens.Now, the university is proposing a broader effort to increase diversity, taking into account a prospective student's race or ethnicity, where a student is from, whether the student speaks a foreign language and whether the student has a talent that would benefit the university. By making race one of many factors considered for admission, the policy meets the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The high court said that while universities cannot place sole emphasis on an applicant's race, they can consider it as a factor.It's hard to see how Georgians could argue against weighing the accomplishments of UGA applicants against the opportunities or obstacles they have encountered.Consider two applicants who both made the honor roll throughout high school. One is from an affluent family and was raised from birth on flashcards, piano lessons and science camps. That student scored a 1250 on the SAT. The other candidate is a striving student from a poor family in rural Georgia, raised in a home where the only reading material was the phone book. That student scored 1150 on the SAT.Whose accomplishments represent greater merit? |
Reprinted with permission from The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. Further reproduction, retransmission or distribution of these materials without the prior written consent of The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution, and any copyright holder identified in the material's copyright notice, is prohibited.
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