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Amicus Curiae

March 14th, 2013

As a public university, the University of Caitlin, Teala, Katie or CTKU, we will be strongly affected by the decision in this case. Right now our university is considering race in admissions just like the University of Texas and many other public universities around the nation. Just as UT and others, we use a holistic plan that uses race as one of many factors,that is not a predominant factor. If the court rules in favor of Fisher we will lose our admissions process which helps creates a more diverse student body.

    There are many reasons why race is needed in admissions. One way racial consideration helps diversify the classroom is it helps to create a better learning experience by having people of different backgrounds and from different cultures and discussions in the classroom become more lively. Having diversity in the classroom and in the school helps prepare students for the real world and future ahead of them by reducing prejudice and broadening their horizons. Research shows that policies banning racial consideration in admissions discourages minorities from applying to schools. This stereotype threat affects children as low as middle school. Attempts to lift the threat have reduced the gap between black and white middle school students’ GPAs by 40%. Admissions processes that use racial consideration are welcoming to minorities by urging them to apply among other things.These facts are proven in a study done at UT between the years of 1998-2008 in which UT used racial consideration in their admissions and the African American student population doubled while the hispanic students increased by about 1.5 times. Fisher says that admissions should be race-neutral, but there are so many factors such as GPA, extracurriculars, community service, financial circumstance, work experience, leadership, honors and awards, and other factors along with academics and records  in admissions that no person can really be assured admission even in race-neutral admissions process. In the case of UT, it uses a Holistic plan which is an admissions program that looks at the whole  individual instead of taking certain qualities of persons into a predominant factor such as race. Fisher argues that universities should just have the top number rule, in which admissions is solely based on grades, but the problem that makes it unequal is stereotype threat, in which minorities perform worse because of the fear that their performance could negatively impact their race stereotype.The Top Ten Percent plan put into action in 2012 by North Carolina  only increases the percentage of non-white and underrepresented students by 1%.
C K, T V, K H