Admissions based on race? Two Harvard students debate before the Supreme Court decision
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Two Harvard University students on opposing sides offered their arguments on whether or not colleges should consider race during the admissions process ahead of Monday’s Supreme Court case for affirmative action.
“Efforts like these put more focus on race, and I think there should be more focus on merit and what they actually bring to college and a holistic view,” Alma Conway, a third-year student year from Arizona, he told Fox. News. The Venezuelan American said that he does not want his ethnicity “to be the most important factor and that’s why it’s the only reason I’m at Harvard.”
WATCH TWO HARVARD STUDENTS SHARE ARGUMENTS ABOUT RACE-BASED ADMISSIONS:
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But Joseph Hernandez, a second-year student from California, disagrees.
“My experience with race in the classroom has not been something that is so easily disentangled with other things that generally measure opportunity,” he told Fox News. “I think it is a factor that determines people’s opportunities and as such should be taken into account when we look at admissions.”
Two Harvard University students debate their opposing views on affirmative action before the Supreme Court case that begins on October 31st.
(Megan Myers/Fox News)
A TIMELINE OF SUPREME COURT CASES ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
Oral arguments will be heard before the Supreme Court started on Monday for Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. A decision in the case, along with another involving the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, could overturn a previous decision and prohibit colleges from using race-based affirmative action during the admissions process.
Harvard University is being challenged by Students for Fair Admissions Inc. for discrimination against Asian-American students in the college admissions process.
(Megan Myers/Fox News)
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“Affirmative action, in a way, is discriminatory because you’re looking at differences,” Conway told Fox News. “I think if the court decides to remove it, it will be a step in the right direction.”
But Hernandez said, “There are some very clear issues in admissions, regardless of where you stand on affirmative action and while I will push people toward affirmative action, I will also say that we need to evaluate these other issues.”
To see Conway and Hernandez’s entire discussion on affirmative action, click here.
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