Circuit Court Upholds UT Admissions Policy

The University of Texas will not have to change its admissions policy, this according to the 5th Circuit US Court of Appeals. Two students, Abigail Fisher and Rachel Michalewicz, had sued UT after being denied admission to the University in 2008. They claimed their equal protection and civil rights were violated and filed suit against the university’s “special circumstances” evaluation of prospective students, which takes race and ethnicity into account. A federal district judge sided with the university and the students appealed.

The special circumstances evaluation of applicants was put in place to promote a more diverse student body, and since its inception more Latino and black students have been admitted. Reuters reported the story:

The appeals court said the University of Texas could rely on race as one of the “special circumstances” used to evaluate student applicants because race is not the only factor considered.
The court also found that the university’s use of race in admissions was tailored to a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court in 2003, which upheld the University of Michigan Law School’s use of race as one factor to evaluate applicants.

The court’s caveat, though, was that it could not endorse the admissions policy “in perpetuity.”  Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote “Rather, much like judicial approval of a state’s redistricting of voter districts, it is good only until the next census count — it is more a process than a fixed structure that we review.”

Interestingly, a Latino, Judge Emilio Garza, was opposed to the policybut felt compelled to side with US Supreme Court precedence. He wrote “Yesterday’s racial discrimination was based on racial preference; today’s racial preference results in racial discrimination.”

Again, according to Reuters “The University of Texas began using race as a factor in admissions in 2005. After that, the enrollment of black students doubled to 335 students in 2008 from 165 students in 1998, and Hispanic enrollment increased to 1,228 students from 762.”