Affirmative action and the case of Abigail Fisher

The case of Abigail Noel Fisher brought the issue of affirmative action in higher education to the U.S. Supreme Court’s docket for the first time since its 2003 ruling upholding the use of race in admissions.

Fisher was a teenager in a Houston suburb when she first sued the University of Texas at Austin, claiming the school denied her admission because she is white.

As an education reporter, I covered developments in the case and the impact on affirmative action. Here are some of the pieces I wrote. (Click on the headline to read the story.)

High court to hear UT affirmative action case

Abigail Noel Fisher was a Sugar Land teenager when she first sued the University of Texas at Austin, claiming the school denied her admission because she is white.

Four years later, Fisher is a senior at Louisiana State University and her lawsuit is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it has the potential to end race-based admissions policies at colleges nationwide.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear the case during its term that starts in October. It will bring the issue of affirmative action in higher education to the high court’s docket for the first time since its 2003 ruling upholding the use of race in admissions.

Some fear UT affirmative action case will threaten school diversity

Nine years ago, in a Supreme Court ruling that permitted colleges to consider race in admissions, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor emphasized the importance of cultivating a diverse student body.

“It is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity,” O’Connor wrote in Grutter v. Bollinger. She looked forward to the day, 25 years in the future, when the “use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”

The high court’s decision this week to consider a Texas case may signal the end of affirmative action much sooner than O’Connor expected.

But would such a decision reverse efforts to increase minority student representation, as many supporters of race-based admissions policies fear? Or are race-neutral approaches, such as Texas’ top 10 percent plan, just as effective in boosting diversity, as foes of affirmative action contend?

Texas A&M uses outreach, not race, to draw minority students

In a room festooned with school banners, inspirational slogans and eye-catching signs heralding the march to college, the three large Pizza Hut pies and the Capri Sun juice pouches were only part of the enticement.

The real lure for the nine students gathered in the Lee High School college center was Na’Taria Muse, a Texas A&M University admissions counselor who knows them all by name.

The students, listening intently to Muse as they nibbled on slices and sipped from straws, are cheerleaders and volleyball players, aspiring doctors and engineers, a portrait of diversity in ethnicity and experience.

Throughout the school year, it’s Muse’s job to encourage, inform, inspire and wheedle promising students like these to consider applying to A&M and to enroll if they’re accepted.

“We don’t want you to feel like a tiny tadpole in a big pond,” Muse assured the students, who have been accepted to A&M but are weighing whether to attend. “We want you to feel like A&M is your home.”

That message – spread to high schools across the state – is a central component of A&M’s efforts to bolster its black and Latino enrollment.

UT affirmative action case divides Asian-Americans

On its surface, the case of Abigail Noel Fisher v. University of Texas revolves around whether the school’s consideration of race in admissions led to the rejection of a white student.

But as the case nears the Supreme Court’s fall docket, it is also stirring a debate about the impact of affirmative action policies on Asian-American students and casting a spotlight on the stereotype of Asian-Americans as “the model minority.”