The Study Of Affirmative Action In American Higher Education

American government has been trying to solve the problem of racial equality, itintroduced many laws and policies to protect the interests of the ethnic minoritiessuch as black. In the laws and policies, affirmative action is one of the mostcontroversial policies. Affirmative action was promulgated by President Lincoln inthe early1960’s in the form of administrative commands and it aimed at protectingthe rights and interests of blacks and other minorities in employment and education,and giving them some preferential policy support. Its performance in higher education,is the preferential admissions policy.Affirmative action was adopted by the university of California at the earliest. Inthe early70’s, the university of California began to implement affirmative action inthe whole university, of course including the implementation of preferentialadmissions policy in enrollment, which means the racial or ethnic factors inadmissions were considered. At first, the implementation of preferential admissionpolicy is mainly the quotas, which means California reserved for black and otherminority a certain number of places. As soon as this policy published, it had launchedimmediately questioned and denied. In1978, for example, Bakke v. the Regent ofUniversity of California was a typical case of preferential admission policy. AfterBakke, the University of California stopped the implementation of preferentialadmission policy of quota, and the implementation of preferential admission policy ofracial bias. While the transition was still not stop the question and objection of thepolicies. In1994, Cook events, made the skepticism of preferential admission policy.After this event, the University of California in1995by voting announced that sinceJanuary1,1997stop the implementation of affirmative action. Such a policy shiftmade blacks and other minority students at enrollment rate of minorities fell sharply.To reverse this situation, University of California is still trying to find a fair admissionapproach to assure the quality.Through clarifying the historical development of affirmative action, understandthe stages of policies from the social background and development status., andcombining the situation of California, analysis the implementation of affirmativeaction at the university of California. On the basis of the discussion of the controversyand put forward their own thinking and evaluation. Therefore, the thesis is divided into the following five parts:The first part is the preface part. From the put-forward problems, research status,significance and method, it has introduced the study of preferential enrollment policyin domestic and foreign.The second part: from the perspective of historical, divided the stage ofaffirmative action into the formation, development stage, questioned stage andimproved stage.The third part is a detailed analysis of preferential enrollment policy change inUniversity of California. From California’s higher education system and management,this paper analyses on the implementation of preferential admission policy in theUniversity of California. Combining with specific cases and data, the development ofpreferential admission policy in the University of California can be divided intoadmissions stage of quotas, and racial bias of admissions policy and stop theimplementation of preferential admissions policy.The fourth part mainly analyses the focus in the debate of preferential admissionpolicy in the University of California, which are: the diversity of student body, theadmission criteria for racial and controversy of minority graduation rates.The fifth part mainly according to the development of preferential admissionpolicy in the University of California, I will put forward some ideas and evaluationabout it. Analyses the factors can affect the development of affirmative action, as wellas the unique factors in the University of California.