Lab #8—Affirmative Action

Chapter 7: The Ethics of Job Discrimination: Affirmative Action—History and Questions

PRO GROUP:

       See board for assigned group.

CON GROUP:

       See board for assigned group.

You may find these articles in Powerweb useful:

UNIT 2: Ethical Issues and Dilemmas in the Workplace

Part D:   Discriminatory and Prejudicial Employment Practices

                      Articles 25, 26, & 27

       UNIT 3: Business and Society: Contemporary Ethical, Social, and Environmental Issues

              Part B:   Contemporary Ethical Issues

                      Articles 53 & 54

Add to the materials provided with additional current research.

History:

1978 University of California

By the late 1970s the use of racial quotas and minority set-asides led to court challenges of affirmative action as a form of “reverse discrimination.” The first major challenge was Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (5–4) that quotas may not be used to reserve places for minority applicants if white applicants are denied a chance to compete for those places. Although the court outlawed quota programs, it allowed colleges to use race as a factor in making college admissions decisions. Two years later a fragmented court upheld a 1977 federal law requiring that 10 percent of funds for public works be allotted to qualified minority contractors. ¹

1996 University of Texas:

In 1996, Hopgood, a white applicant, challenged the University of Texas’s affirmative action program arguing that the university was wrong to use race as a factor in its admission policy. The Supreme Court upheld the lower-court ruling that the University of Texas's affirmative action program was unconstitutional. ¹

Court strikes down Texas' affirmative action

http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1996/apr/04-09-96/edit/bottom.edit.html

2003 University of Michigan:

In 2003, there were two landmark rulings involving admissions to the University of Michigan and its law school. The Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutionality of affirmative action, but it ruled that race could not be the preeminent factor in a university’s undergraduate admission policy. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. (2002). Affirmative Action. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/affirmative_action.html [online 11/12/04].)

Solicitor leaves conservative mark

http://www.detnews.com/2003/schools/0303/23/b04-115949.htm

Questions:

Use the following article and others you find to discuss the long-term effects of affirmative action being continued versus being terminated. Be sure to determine data regarding the after-effects on gender and minorities at the schools involved in the cases cited above as well as any other data you can find.

Society may change course if affirmative action dies

http://www.detnews.com/2003/specialreport/0306/16/b01-193559.htm