University of Minnesota Ends Affirmative Action for Applicants

CV NEWS FEED // The University of Minnesota has dropped affirmative action in accordance with the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the topic.

Affirmative action, which has been in place since the 1960s, was used to accept or reject students based on their race in order to ensure that the university was “diverse.”

In June the Supreme Court rejected the use of race as a determining factor in accepting college applications. 

“The application will ask for this optional information for recruitment and communication purposes about programs and services offered,” the university stated this month. “The information will not be provided to application reviewers and will not be considered at any point during the University of Minnesota admissions decision process.” 

The university states that it is still committed to creating and maintaining a diverse student body, however they will go about it in a different way than previously “with students bringing differing experiences, talents and perspectives to their scholarly community.” Academic factors will be of the highest importance, with consideration for extracurricular activities and other “context factors” taken into account. 

The Supreme Court’s decision will likely affect universities across the country. Supporters of the decision point out that the results will represent an implementation of the vision Martin Luther King expressed in his I Have a Dream speech. Future generations of children “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

“Many universities have for too long done just the oppo­site,” Chief Justice John Roberts stated in his opinion as the Court handed down their decision in June: 

And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.