Affirmative action so often is construed as a black and white issue that the complexities of the practice often are ignored. As well as affecting blacks and whites, affirmative action programs can be applied to other racial groups or to distinctions based on gender, class, geography or a myriad of other factors.
This practice is evident in the University's admissions policy. Since achieving a diverse community is one of the University's goals, many characteristics of an applicant that enhance the University's diversity can give that student an advantage, said Karen Holt, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs.
At the University, and elsewhere, affirmative action is relevant to members of all racial and ethnic groups, not just blacks and whites.
Giles Li, communications director of the Organization of Chinese Americans, a group that supports affirmative action, said people often do not associate affirmative action with Asian-Americans.
"Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have been left out of the discussion almost entirely," Li said.
As a result of the diversity of the Asian-American community, opinions vary widely on whether members of the community should support affirmative action.
Whether Asian-Americans support affirmative action "depends on different factors," Li said. "It depends on economic status and it depends on how long you've been" in this country.
This ambivalence can be seen in the University community among all racial groups.
First-year Engineering student Paul Bui, who is an Asian-American, says he supports affirmative action in certain situations.
"If I were to be accepted merely on the grounds of my last name, that would undermine my intelligence," Bui said.
However, he said the valedictorian of a lower quality high school should be given some preference in admissions, even if he or she does not have the test scores normally needed to make it into the University.
"They should try to lower the bar a little," he added.
Justin Reda, a first-year College student and an Italian-American, said he does not favor affirmative action and would not support it even if he thought the policy benefited Italian-Americans.
"It's ludicrous - inequality cannot beget equality," Reda said.
Fourth-year College student Linnisa Wahid, who is black, disagrees.
Affirmative action "does need to be restructured," Wahid said, "but it doesn't need to be gotten rid of."
Of course, affirmative action does not only affect racial and ethnic minorities.
Aside from blacks, the group most commonly associated with affirmative action is women. Many prominent women's groups, such as the National Organization for Women, support this policy. However, the University Office of Admissions typically does not look at gender when considering applicants.
"In general, we are gender blind," Dean of Admissions John A. Blackburn said of the University's admissions policy.
Using this system, 2,832 women and 2,396 men were offered admission to the University this spring.
The University does give a slight advantage to women applying to the Engineering School and men applying to the Nursing School, Blackburn said.
Affirmative action also can be applied to class distinctions, when poorer students are given preference because of the challenges they have faced.
"Like most colleges and universities, we give special consideration to people who have overcome obstacles," Blackburn said.
Some schools consider economic class in admissions as an alternative to the consideration of race altogether, while the University considers both factors.
A federal court banned affirmative action in Texas public schools in the 1996 case Hopwood vs. Texas. As a result, the University of Texas at Austin began accepting all students in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.
By accepting people from both rich and poor high schools in somewhat equal numbers, the University of Texas replaced the consideration of race with a form of class-based affirmative action.
However, supporters of race-based affirmative action say racial minorities face challenges that are different and sometimes greater than those faced by the poor.
"Class and race are connected, but class is never a substitute for race," said Julian Bond, a history professor and NAACP Chairman.
In addition to race, class and gender, affirmative action or similar preferential policies can apply to many other factors. In particular, colleges and universities sometimes consider whether an applicant's relatives are alumni, where the applicant lives and whether an applicant can play a sport at a college level.
The University, however, does not consider geography when making admissions decisions, but does give "a slight advantage" to children of alumni, Blackburn said.
Giving "legacies" this advantage makes sense given the amount of personal and financial support alumni offer the University, he said.
Though these types of preferential policies sometimes may be controversial, only "race, national origin and sex are problematic," under the law, Law Prof. Kim Fourde-Mazrui said.
As a result, opponents of affirmative action do not tend to associate race-based affirmative action with other kinds of affirmative action or preferential policies.
"Some of those preferences may be stupid, but they aren't unconstitutional," said Richard Blum, director of legal affairs for the American Civil Rights Institute, an organization that opposes affirmative action. "They may be bad educational policy, but they don't go against Brown v. Board of Education."
Yet some affirmative action supporters such as Bond argue that the fact that preferences are applied in so many different ways shows that considering race is not a radical idea.
Regardless of who is right, the fact remains that, while race- and gender-based affirmative action programs are the subject of much scrutiny, many other types of preferences are not. In many fields, including college and university admissions, these policies are neither widely known, nor even controversial.
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