Two Harvard studies released last week concluded state programs that guarantee college admissions to a top percentage of high school seniors do not maintain diversity on college campuses.
The reports examined the "percent" programs of three states -- Florida, California and Texas, all of which have eliminated affirmative action programs during the last decade.
While reaffirming a commitment to the enriching nature of diversity, some University administrators claim these programs are based on flawed premises, regardless of their effectiveness.
"Such programs assume certain things about the state's schools," University Dean of Admissions John A. Blackburn said.
To be successful in preserving diversity, a statewide "percent" program assumes a large number of high schools in which minorities make up a majority of the student body. Blackburn added that Virginia has very few such schools.
The emphasis on class rank and grade point average is an equally ineffective practice, Blackburn said.
"GPA says nothing about the classes they took," Blackburn said. He also cited College Board study findings that show a more rigorous high school course load is a better predictor of success in college than GPA.
In the national debate over the University of Michigan's admissions policy, President Bush and other conservative leaders have lauded such "race neutral" programs as being methods of diversifying university classrooms without explicitly using race.
Researchers at the Harvard Civil Rights Project, however, disagree with Bush's claims, saying such success stories often can be attributed to less overt race-specific outreach policies.
The University of Texas at Austin, frequently held up as a success case by proponents of "percent" programs, admits it continues to target minorities in recruitment efforts and the awarding of financial aid, Harvard Research Associate Kathy Horn said.
Furthermore, none of these states' minority student populations have returned to affirmative action levels, and student bodies are becoming less representative of the states' high school populations. Horn said although Hispanics make up 39 percent of Texans ages 15 to 19, only 15 percent of UT's 2001 entering class was Hispanic.
Although applicants are being admitted into the state university system, Horn said the minority populations at the more elite schools such as Berkley, UCLA and the University of Florida are plummeting without affirmative action. Individual California and Florida schools are left to select the students for their incoming classes by criteria determined at the school level.
In a prepared statement, Florida Governor Jeb Bush defended his "One Florida" policy, saying the report uses "sterile and shallow data analysis" in order to discredit what he considers to be a successful policy.
In Florida, the top 20 percent of high school classes automatically are admitted into the state university system. In Texas, students in the top 10 percent of their class can enroll in any state university of their choice.
The Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee tabled a bill introduced by Senator Mary Whipple proposing a similar system for Virginia. The Senate bill was postponed indefinitely in order to further study the issue.
Horn maintains the significance of these reports lie in their finding that such programs achieve different ends in different states.
"What can be gleaned from these reports is to suggest these are not wholesale programs that maintain diversity and cannot be cut and pasted across the country," Horn said.
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