Asian-Americans have always opposed affirmative actions at Harvard University claiming that it is used to discriminate against them. The case which had been filed in a federal court was ruled in favor of Harvard University. They have vowed to appeal the ruling in the high court.
Asian-American Harvard applicants have lost a case that would have seen Harvard University make changes to its admissions. The lawsuit alleged that Harvard through their affirmative action programs was discriminating against Asian-Americans students. They had argued that they had performed better than their counterparts in standardized tests.
This, however, was not enough for them as they had to be subjected to a personality rating system, a method they said eliminated a lot of qualified Asian- Americans.
Asian-Americans against affirmative action
The affirmative action has always been debated across the country in the last few decades. A lot of its opponents believe that it is meant to distribute admission opportunities to unqualified students who have not reached the cut off points for standardized tests. The argument for the proponent of this form of admissions is that the Black and Latino communities’ opportunities for higher education are limited. This has placed them at a disadvantage historically when they are competing with students who come from more affluent schools that have better resources than them, well funded, better student to teacher ratio and with resources to offset their college education fees.
The Asian-American community loss in this case, however, will not be the end of pursuit for the justice they are seeking. They are expected to make an appeal to the high courts. If their grievances are not heard, legal experts who are analyzing this case believe that it will go up to the supreme court. This court case is receiving a lot of support from the White House and Trump administration who have always opposed the affirmative actions at Harvard and other prestigious universities.
Unequal opportunities for disadvantaged students
Harvard receives an endowment of around $39 billion and this case has exposed a new perspective to how it runs its affairs. The court case can be easily be interpreted to mean that, will these financial resources under their wraps, how are they not able to provide equal opportunities for disadvantaged students.
Are the affirmative actions the best they can do to ensure that students from different ethnicities and financial backgrounds are integrated into their schools? The most important question is: Are they really concerned or just doing virtual signaling?
It is clear a lot of effort has to be made to address the issues with Asian-Americans, Harvard admissions programs, the personality rating tests that have brought all of these controversies concerning affirmative actions. This will be a process and the expected appeal of the ruling will further divide both sides on the issue of affirmative actions. What is clear though is that a lot more needs to be done to address the current status quo at Harvard University.
