Current Events

The article, How to achieve real diversity in higher education by Valerie Strauss,
explores racial diversity and the quality of it in America’s higher education. Strauss states that
SAT and ACT test scores have been used for many years to select students to join colleges and
universities. The tests have largely been a function of the mother’s level of education, race, and
family income (Strauss, 2020). As such, in the recent past, the University of California
announced its decision to phase out the use of SAT and ACT test scores as one of its admissions
criteria. Critics of such systems of standardized testing applauded the university’s decision. The
tests are partly a function of race, and thus using them equates to using a race-conscious
admissions process. However, Strauss argues that eliminating the use of tests in the university’s
admissions process does not help achieve racial diversity in college.
In the article, Strauss quotes Osamudia James, who in a blog mentioned that some of the
measures that the education system in the country is taking in response to the Covid-19
pandemic would leave black students further behind their white counterparts than was the case
before the pandemic struck (Strauss, 2020). The decision to drop test scores in admissions
requirements is a fair decision for minority and poor students. It is a positive step towards
broadening access to postsecondary education. Although the decision is necessary, it will not
yield much fruits in enhancing diversity in American colleges and universities.
Reliance on tests exerts a cost on students. However, eliminating it does not necessarily
mean that more minority students will enroll. After the Affirmative action was banned and
students dropped the race-conscious admission practices, the University of California registered
a drop in the minority students that enrolled in some of its schools (Strauss, 2020). This was
despite the fact that the university still relied on standardized testing. After dropping affirmative

action due to a series of litigations, the university adopted race-neutral admission practices.
Unfortunately, these never yielded the same results in terms of enhancing student diversity. The
Supreme Court argued that race admissions practices could not be used to correct the historical
exclusion of black people from the country’s higher education. Such practices can also not be
used to counter the institutions’ overreliance on standardized testing, which is the cornerstone of
a racial caste system in the country.
Institution’s failure to achieve diversity has made some of them use of superficial
deployment of diversity. They have used people of color to reap benefits in instances when a
more diverse institution will appeal more or “sell” more to investors and applicants. Diversity
has, in the past, been used to serve exclusionary goals. The author gives an example of a case
where the University of Wisconsin at Madison altered a photograph and included a black person
(Strauss, 2020). The university added a black person to a group of fans with the aim of depicting
the college as diverse. The individual added had never been at the institution. The university
acknowledged that it had gone too far in trying to paint itself as a diverse institution, while in
real sense, it was not. The example shows how much diversity has been corporatized in colleges
and universities.
Strauss holds that people of color are purported to enjoy “free rides” when the race is
considered during admission (Strauss, 2020). However, the privileged community fails to
acknowledge how some of their cultural and political needs have historically been prioritized.
Today, diversity is attacked and attempts to enhance it dismissed. The article emphasizes the
false equivalences created when diversity is superficially deployed. Although racial diversity
matters, there are systems in place that have justified the monopoly of one race by making it
appear natural. In the end, the author acknowledges that although elimination of tests may

eventually yield a more diverse student population, institutions that are concerned about racial
inequality must put in place measures to eliminate monopoly even after the process of admission
is over.
Over the years, affirmative action has inspired fierce debate and several lawsuits.
Affirmative action is a conceptual framework whose relevance in the country’s racial justice
agenda remains many years after its formation. It still contains policies that are useful in doing
away with certain practices that do not provide equal opportunities for students of color and
other marginalized racial minorities who qualify well for higher education. The term affirmative
action was first used b John F. Kennedy in 1961 in a racial disparity address (Bonadies, 2020). It
was first aimed at realizing nondiscrimination. Since the contours of permissible policies related
to affirmative action have significantly been shaved down by the courts, institutions of higher
learning must be willing to come up with practices that expand access to disadvantaged student
populations. Even when such practices are adopted, institutions must enhance inclusion around
campus after diversity is reached. In a TedTalk, Anthony Jack states that institutions have
assumed that access is inclusion while that is not the case (Jack, 2019). There is a need to put
measures in place where systems around campus foster inclusion of students of all races.

References

Bonadies, G. (2020). Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Relevance for Today’s Racial
Justice Battlegrounds. Americanbar.org. Retrieved 29 October 2020, from
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/bla
ck-to-the-future-part-ii/affirmative-action-in-higher-education–relevance-for-today-s-ra/.
Jack, A. (2019). On Diversity: Access Ain’t Inclusion. TEDxCambridge. Retrieved 29 October
2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7w2Gv7ueOc.
Strauss, V. (2020). How to achieve real diversity in higher education. Washington Post.
Retrieved 29 October 2020, from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/06/11/how-achieve-real-diversity-