[I have just posted my first entry on the “Working Group” section of the new Right on Race blog. Although I reproduce that post (or most of it) below, you may want to check over there after a while in case it receives any Comments. In any event, you’ll want to check that blog regularly.]
What do admissions officers do when they “consider race” (as “only one of many factors,” of course)? Exactly how do they consider it? When push comes to admit, what does “considering race” really mean?
Gratz invalidated rigid point bonuses, but are there any limits to the leeway allowed by Grutter (aside, I mean, from the recommendation to consider non-preferential methods of boosting “diversity”)? Is there any bar to Michigan et. al., unleashed by Grutter, giving more consideration to race now than they did with bonus points?
Take, for example, two hypothetical applicants, one minority and one not. Under the old point system, the minority candidate was boosted with a gift of 20 points, but (presumably) he or she would still not have been admitted if the non-minority applicant wound up with more points. But under the no-points-but-one-of-many-factors system approved by the Supremes, couldn’t that minority applicant now be admitted? That is, couldn’t the admissions committee take a look at the two candidates, recognize that under the old system even the 20 point bonus would not have been sufficient to catapult the minority candidate ahead of the other, but, “considering race,” admit him or her now anyway?
One under-appreciated benefit of the 20 point bonus may turn out to be that it was only 20 points.
UPDATE
See Roger Clegg’s reply here.
