College is beneficial in a number of ways. Although the primary reason to attend is to get an adequate education, college also provides a platform to network with like-minded individuals. It is a crucial in personal development.
Part of personal development is being exposed to people with different experiences and backgrounds.
It takes you out of the comfort of what is familiar and forces you to open your eyes to the world around you.
These moments are when a person learns the most about themselves and teaches them to tolerate others.
Tolerance is important in our society because it allows us to live amongst each other despite differences. What better place to learn tolerance than college?
The United States is known as the melting pot of the world, where a wide variety of cultures come together as one.
Although this image has been claimed for decades, it did not reflect our schools or the workplace. For a long time, many minorities were not represented in quality schools and high-paying jobs.
How can we claim America as diverse when this is not reflected in the universities and workplaces?
That is where affirmative action comes into play. For those who are unfamiliar with affirmative action, it is a law put in place that encourages the integration of minority groups in the workplace, schools and neighborhoods.
Affirmative action was created to reverse the social institutions that have oppressed minority groups.
Affirmative action is often called reverse racism.
Although there are aspects of affirmative action that can be improved, many positive aspects are overlooked.
Certain connections that may be available to white students may not be accessible to minorities. Often minority students come from neighborhoods where the majority of residents are without a college education.
This makes it hard for these students to connect with the employers a white student from a middle class family may be able to connect with.
The debate was recently taken to the Supreme Court after white student Abigail Fisher was denied acceptance to the University of Texas at Austin.
Many deem the consideration of race unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court’s 1978 Bakke decision deemed racial consideration constitutional as long as the purpose is to supply diversity to the campus.
An article published by the Boston Globe spoke on the mismatch epidemic that Gail Heriot and Peter Kirasanow, members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, have been concerned about.
The mismatch epidemic argues affirmative action hurts minority students more than it helps because universities lower their standards in order to admit minority students who do not meet the requirements.
These students end up dropping out or switching to less rigorous majors.
The problem is not in their ability to succeed in these universities. It is the lack of support they have while in these schools.
Oftentimes these students come from backgrounds in which their parents have never been to college and must figure out the process with little to no guidance.
There may also be a lack of funds that prohibit students from continuing their education.
It’s not enough to just admit these students into the school.
They need the continued support that their white peers, such as Abigail Fisher, would have.
grrkelly@indiana.edu
@gracedwithtruth
