Free Republic

Universities must wait one year before making changes UT considers race-based college admissions policy AUSTIN (AP) — Ethnic diversity at the University of Texas at Austin remains low more than a decade after four white students filed a lawsuit against the nation's largest university, setting off the demise of affirmative action in Texas. The university is considering a new admissions policy that would include race as a factor in selecting students in an effort to boost minority enrollment — a move allowed by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2003. "We've seen significant improvement in diversity on campus, but I...

Texas Tech will return to a former policy of including race and ethnicity as a factor in ad missions after the Board of Regents approved the measure Friday. Race was a consideration before the 1996 Hopwood decision, which overturned affirmative action in Texas. The suit, named for lead plaintiff Cheryl Hopwood, was filed by four white students who were denied admission to the University of Texas School of Law. However, a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court allows universities to return to using race as one of multiple factors in the admissions process. "It allows the admissions policies to...

Texas to rewrite admissions policies BY JIM VERTUNO Associated Press Writer AUSTIN - The University of Texas will draft new affirmative action admissions policies that include race as a factor as allowed by Monday's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, school President Larry Faulkner said Monday. Any new policy for undergraduate admissions would have to work within the confines of the state law that entitles Texas high school students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their class enrollment in a state university. Monday's ruling ends the rule of the so-called "Hopwood" decisions by federal courts and former state...

On January 15, George W. Bush seemed to get race preferences just about right. On January 16, he got them wrong -- again. It took a long time for W. to appear to come out, boldly and unequivocally, for an end to race preferences in college admissions while advocating equal opportunity for all. He looked good for a minute there -- and then he deliberately dropped the ball. If he were a quarterback, the penalty would be "intentional grounding." And he has dropped the ball on this issue so many times it now it seems legitimate to ask which team...