General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Robert's "long game" is to dismantle affirmative action [View all]ProgressiveProfessor
(22,144 posts)Last edited Mon Jul 2, 2012, 07:59 PM - Edit history (1)
What was the goal for affirmative action in academia is still open to debate. There were and are widely divergent views on that. For example was it reasonable to expect equal results in addition to equal opportunity? There were some arguing for it at the time.
You are right about the institutional failure. Some schools were more concerned about their stats than the students. The failures seemed more pronounced in the classes with decimal points, but that is anecdotal on my part.
In the UC system we are still trying to address equitable access since due to Prop 209 our hands are tied in many ways. Just look at the stats at Berkley.
There is no easy answer. I clearly benefited from it at the time. However, I saw other minority students who were clearly in over their heads allowed to sink. Today there seems to be less "overplacement", but still a disproportionate share of minority students IMO are under prepared IME.