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December 12, 2003
Texas A & M Asserts its Independence By Gail Heriot God bless Texas A&M University President Robert Gates. The Supreme Court told him that he could racially discriminate all he wants; all he has to do is refrain from using a mathematical formula. But he doesn't want to engage in race discrimination. "My concern," he said, "is that I want every student at Texas A&M to be able to look at every other student and know they all got in on the same basis, on the basis of personal merit and achievement." For the past several years, like other Texas public colleges and universities, Texas A&M has been working under the Fifth Circuit's Hopwood decision, which prohibited racial double standards in admissions. When the Supreme Court's twin decisions in Grutter and Gratz overruled Hopwood, other Texas schools announced that they would be returning to race-based admissions standards. But not the Aggies. Gates has announced that A&M will continue to combine aggressive outreach with universally-applicable admissions standards. Diversity is indeed a worthy goal in the view of President Gates, but he isn't willing to sell the soul of his university to get it. Gates is already facing opposition. State Senator Royce West (D-Dallas) said, "This policy sends the wrong message to young ethnic minorities .... Race must be a factor in getting the results we need in the state of Texas." And West is willing to go to threaten adverse consequences if A&M does not show significant improvement in its ethnic diversity by Fall of next year. This in itself is nothing new. Such threats have been made in other states as well. California Legislators, particularly members of the Hispanic Caucus, have been anything but subtle in demanding that the University of California increase its Hispanic enrollment or face budget cuts. But perhaps West has one-upped his California counterparts. He is threatening to seek legislation mandating that race be considered in the admissions policies of all Texas public institutions of higher learning. Good luck to President Gates. He is swimming upstream in the academic world. It won't be easy. |