The 8 Greatest Affirmative Action Scandals in Higher Ed History

Seeing as how Affirmative Action exists as a highly controversial issue, it’s understandable that occasional scandals and controversies bob about in its wake like so many manatees. Whether supporter or opponent, many maneuver the ideology’s core components for their own personal ends, rocketing it to the forefront of media and societal consciousness. And, subsequently, debates both intellectual and sub-YouTubian erupt.
Do keep in mind that this article isn’t meant to offer up reasons to dismantle the Affirmative Action policy! All it hopes to accomplish is revealing some of the ways in which individuals and schools subvert the system for their own ends, or try to stir up controversy around their personal disagreements with everything it entails. Just because people screw up and exploit the policies or exercise their First Amendment right to peacefully, legally voice their dissent doesn’t mean the regulations granting traditionally marginalized demographics a fair chance at higher education need to go away entirely. It’s nothing more than proof that ideologies implemented by humans get subverted by humans, and sometimes other humans aren’t big fans. Nothing more, nothing less.

1. Elizabeth Warren’s Cherokee ancestry:

   Harvard Law professor and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren identifies as Cherokee (likely around 1/32, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education). Scandal, however, settled in when it was revealed that she only identified herself as Native American between 1986 and 1995, eventually dropping that bit of her biography after establishing herself at the Ivy League university. Critics on both sides of the political spectrum see the motion as exploiting either Affirmative Action or the Cherokee Nation, depending on their leanings, with some pointing out how the program might not benefit students who need it the most as a result of Warren and others like her.

2. The United States Naval Academy’s two-tiered system:

   Allegations of establishing a loose two-tiered structure with white students held to a higher standard for admissions and school work struck The United States Naval Academy in 2009. Because it hoped to increase its diversity, officials were accused of accepting minority students with academic records below the usual requirements and assigning them easier tasks. Such a policy also apparently dictates enrollment at the Naval Academy Preparatory School, though both institutions deny a formal adherence to anything of the sort. In a country where nonwhites have historically been touted as intellectually inferior, this trend carries with it some incredibly unfortunate implications.

3. Bobby Petrino’s mistress scores a waiver:

   Affirmative Action policies at University of Arkansas require all job listings to be available for a minimum of 30 days before interviewing applicants, but the school will distribute waivers in some circumstances. Football coach Bobby Petrino attempted to create one of these aforementioned circumstances when trying to score a development coordinator position for mistress Jessica Dorrell. He flagrantly fought Affirmative Action regulations by asking to “interview” her five days following the job’s official opening and hiring her 11 days after that – despite no prior experience in the industry. This flagrant disregard for the spirit of UA’s rules denied a truly qualified applicant (of any race) the chance to earn a position furthering his or her career.

4. Abigail Fisher. Just … Abigail Fisher:

   October 2012 saw the Supreme Court poring over Fisher v. University of Texas regarding a hopeful Longhorn who sued the eponymous college because she decided that Affirmative Action is the reason she did not receive admittance. Abigail Fisher, a white applicant, considers herself discriminated against because minority students she deemed unworthy now attend school at her top choice. She filed a lawsuit against UT, citing unfairness in the admissions process as the responsible party. Journalists, political commentators, and educators think this might lead to some changes in Affirmative Action policies, but to what extent nobody will know until the judges issue their ruling.

5. Grutter v. Bollinger’s precedent:

   Before Fisher’s costly, attention-grabbing fight against the University of Texas admissions office, Barbara Grutter similarly took her suit against University of Michigan’s Law School all the way to the Supreme Court in 2003. She considered her denial into the department a deeply personal affront, going so far as to investigate the grades and standardized test scores of minority students and using the findings as evidence that the college deliberately discriminated against her. Justices disagreed, saying that institutes of higher learning may legally factor race into the admissions process. However, they also ruled that it could not play a significant role in accepting or denying an applicant, either.

6. Gratz v. Bollinger’s disagreement with previous rulings:

   Meanwhile, also at University of Michigan — and also in 2003 (big year for Affirmative Action lawsuits, it seems) — students Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher pressed charges against the school for the exact same reason as Barbara Grutter. And, like Grutter, their case wormed its way up to the Supreme Court. The results, however, ignited controversy for the complete opposite ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger. While Grutter’s lawsuit acknowledged that race could, in fact, be a determining factor when deciding whether or not to accept an applicant, Gratz v. Bollinger stated just how much could be considered too much. UM used a point system when deciding whom to take and whom to reject, with minority students worth an additional 20. The Supreme Court didn’t like that very much.

7. Berkeley’s bake sale:

   This might come as a shock to many people, but University of California at Berkeley really does host a Campus Republicans club. While the Sunshine State itself outlaws Affirmative Action, it did consider overturning this policy back in 2011 — a move that prompted the organization to hold a bake sale to protest what they believed to be discriminatory admissions practices should the legislation pass. Obviously quite controversial, the event charged white males $2 and offered discounts based on patrons’ gender/gender expression and/or ethnicity. This ostensibly drove home a point about preferential treatment for the demographics traditionally assisted by Affirmative Action regulations.

8. Rajiv Goswami’s self-immolation:

   In 1989, Delhi University student Rajiv Goswami protested the tenets behind the Mandel Commission (which then-Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh attempted to pass after a decade of controversy) by setting himself on fire, a move which complicated his health his entire life. The proposed policies sought to make amends for India’s history of rigid caste conformity by setting aside both government jobs and admissions at public colleges for members of customarily marginalized classes and races, which inevitably infuriated peoples born into the upper social echelons. Following his successful campaign for the Delhi University Students’ Union presidential position, others took to self-immolation in order to convince the Prime Minister to stop supporting the Mandel Commission. And the debatecontinues dividing Indian college students even today.
   
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