Opinion
FACE OFF: Is affirmative action beneficial to college communities and their students? YES: Affirmative action benefits all students
By Chris Delacruz '13
September 27, 2012
A diverse educational environment has become crucial to create the best possible system for educating tomorrow’s leaders. A significant number of American citizens have argued against affirmative action because of its stereotype as a system that gives priority to the historically disadvantaged. But there is more to the story than that.
While the origin of affirmative action did come about as a system to “right the wrongs of the past,” its form does not aid only the historically disadvantaged. Affirmative action does not simply break a person up into social groups, but rather looks at a person holistically (it takes everything into account such as race, gender, athletics, grades, SATs, extracurriculars, etc) and seeks to build the most balanced community made up of the widest array of ideologies and perspectives.
Those who benefit from affirmative action are those whose perspective is least represented in the area that it is being applied. For example, affirmative action has benefited women, previously barred from many institutions, and now colleges and universities typically enroll more women than men. In this era, it is minority ethnic groups that lack representation on college campuses.
Affirmative action accounts for the fact that there may be extenuating circumstances in any given applicant’s situation. Many believe that affirmative action means that different groups are held to different standards. The stereotype is that different standards are expected from different applicants according to their race (many believe that Asian-Americans are held to the highest standards when it comes to grades as opposed to the other races).
However, affirmative action often takes a very holistic approach to grades as well. One example of how colleges look at grades on an individual-to-individual basis is a quote from Pomona College: “the exam scores from a daughter of two college professors are viewed in a different context than the scores from a first generation college student who attends an underfunded high school.” Thus affirmative action seeks to take all factors into account when deciding whether to accept an individual.
There are various ways which affirmative action can benefit college campuses and institutions across the nation. Hamilton has a policy of affirmative action, meaning it is an equal opportunity employer, for all jobs on campus—whether a job held by a student, faculty member, staff member or administrator. This creates a more diverse campus population in all aspects of campus life. Research from various institutions shows that diversity better prepare students for success.
Researchers from Pomona College studied the effects that affirmative action had on students of color and white students. The researchers from Pomona specifically studied the correlation between the diversity of students’ interactions with others and various educational outcomes. They concluded that increased diversity led to a higher level of educational attainment for both students of color and white students.
Additionally, many colleges have reported that increased diversity in student population forces colleges to adjust their curriculum and extracurricular programming in order to incorporate students’ and alumni’s practical experience of diversity.
Carleton College’s science and math departments have also greatly benefited from affirmative action as Carleton instituted programs to improve the success rates of students of color in science and math. The school found that the programs not only benefited students of color but also ended up benefiting all of the students in these departments.
No matter how you look at it, affirmative action seeks to empower all types of people from every walk of life and should be allowed in education not only for the sake of the historically disadvantaged, but also for the sake of everyone in education. It pushes all students towards higher educational standards and increases the chances of success for everybody.