Olivia Busiri Vici
10 - 29 - 21
Should colleges retain affirmative action as a criteria for admissions?
Colleges should retain affirmative action as a criteria for admission. This is because affirmative action can improve diversity and it helps colleges take a bigger step toward greater equity in admissions. It can also help represent students of color on college campuses. The hope is that in the future we won't have to use affirmative action anymore. It’ll just be normal to have a diverse choice of students. Honestly, it’s kind of sad that even at this time, we are still dealing with this problem. I mean, hopefully in the future we will be in history books, and people will say, “Can you believe that?! They weren’t being treated equally! What a thing of the past!” But for now, we have to bear with the fact that our history is not perfect, and that we still recently have problems with equality.
One reason why colleges should retain affirmative action is because students can learn to be raised in a diverse environment. It can help their skills as a person. For example, in the text “5 Reasons to Support Affirmative Action in College Admissions” it says, “Evidence gathered by the Century Foundation suggests that racially integrated classrooms can reduce students’ racial bias, improve satisfaction and intellectual self confidence, and enhance leadership skills.” This shows that affirmative action helps with diversity in schools, and improves others status when at school. It can motivate people to do better. They can improve in being fair and equal when there is a diverse environment.
Another reason why colleges should retain affirmative action is because it helps colleges improve greater equity in admissions. According to the text ”5 Reasons to Support Affirmative Action in College Admissions”, it says “As a result, students of color are more likely to fare worse on the indicators of success that colleges evaluate for admission, making it harder for people of color to access top tier public and private colleges.” This proves that without affirmative action students of color are more likely to do worse in the admissions due to exclusion, segregation, underfunding fewer resources and lower familial wealth. This means that by adding affirmative action, we can formulate a plan to identify specific students that need help accomplishing their life goals.
The last reason why colleges should use affirmative action is because it can help represent underrepresented students of any race. As an example, in that same text “5 Reasons to Support Affirmative Action in College Admissions”, it says “For example, black students constituted 50 percent of 2015-2016 high school graduates in Mississippi, but were just 12.9 percent of University of Mississippi undergraduates. Banning affirmative action only worsens this persistent problem.” This explains that by not using affirmative action students of color are underrepresented and that it can really worsen the situation. We have to propel the percentages of students of color in schools to make equality happen. There can be larger space for conflict with race admissions.
These reasons are why colleges should retain affirmative action as a criteria for admissions. This can assess who deserves to get in and can help to make an equal standpoint. It can promote diversity, greater equity in admission processes and can help represent the underrepresented on college campuses. Some people think that affirmative action shouldn’t be used because it can be unwise to choose someone just because of their race. This is wrong because there are many factors into choosing one person over another, and it doesn’t just include race, but also how well they may do in the school environment. YOU should help by protesting in support of affirmative action.