The Daily Princetonian reported Nov. 13 that "Yale freshman Jian Li has filed a federal civil rights complaint against Princeton for rejecting his application for admission, claiming the University discriminated against him because he is Asian." Although he received a perfect 2,400 on his SAT, and near-perfect SAT II scores, Li was not admitted to Princeton. Nor was he accepted at MIT, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania.
While one might argue, as a staff editorial for the Daily Princetonian did, that "a holistic evaluation of candidates that takes into consideration each individual's potential contribution. should remain the foundation of the admissions process," Li's case makes it apparent once again that affirmative action is often nothing more than blatant discrimination.
The undergraduate admissions process is not what it used to be, and in many ways this is a good thing. At one time, elite universities enrolled mostly rich white men. The nation's top boarding and day schools would breed candidates for the Ivy League, while most public school students, poorer teenagers and minorities remained excluded. In the latter half of the 20th century, however, universities began opening their doors to people of all backgrounds, and the compositions of their student bodies changed drastically for the better. Today, universities admit candidates of all races, classes, sexualities and religions.
Unfortunately, schools now also reject people on the basis of race. Thanks to affirmative action, some qualified applicants are being discriminated against because of their ethnicity. Asians, like Jian Li, are particularly hard hit.
This is especially troubling because, as a group, Asians perform extremely well in college. As a guest columnist recently stated, the average fourth-semester GPA of Asians at Duke is 3.39-better than any other racial or ethnic group.
But, as in Li's case, they sometimes don't make it through that politically correct gauntlet of discrimination called the undergraduate admissions process. Affirmative action keeps them out; slots they should fill as students go to less qualified minority applicants.
If his high school career points to anything at all, it is that Li is a highly gifted student-a serious scholar dedicated to the highest ideals of learning. The fact that he was admitted to Yale should point to this fact. No matter what the courts determine, Princeton was wrong to reject him.
There is no legitimate argument for affirmative action in its current form. It is nothing but race-based discrimination, a hypocritical injustice that runs counter to the meritocracy for which a university should strive. It persists because those who have the power to change it fear the consequences of doing so. No matter how delicately one puts the argument, even the slightest critic of affirmative action is at risk of being labeled a racist.
Support for continuing affirmative action comes not from a desire for equality, but from the self interest of those it benefits. In a 2003 poll taken by CBS News, the participants were asked if affirmative action should exist. Of the African Americans who took part in the poll, 94 percent answered "yes," while the overall total among respondents was 54 percent. This should not be surprising, considering affirmative action was created largely to remedy past discrimination against African Americans.
But affirmative action does not just benefit financially or culturally disadvantaged African Americans. In the case of elite universities, it helps mainly upper-middle class black students, who are educated at private schools and raised by wealthy families.
If the racial quota system once used by the University of Michigan revealed anything, it is that colleges give preference to applicants from certain races no matter their financial circumstances. And while the Supreme Court ended up outlawing quotas, everyone knows that they're still in use-albeit unofficially.
Jian Li, of course, will not have an immediate effect on the admissions process, and top universities will continue to use affirmative action. But it is time to speak honestly about the practice and admit that certain minority groups are hurt because the elite of another want to continue having an edge in admissions.
It is time to talk candidly, without fear. The health of our universities, and of our society, depends on it.
Jamie Deal is a Trinity junior. His column runs every other Thursday.
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