In search of fairness: a better way - UCLA shows that class-based affirmative action won't lead to a 'whiteout'

Washington Monthly, June, 1998 by Richard D. Kahlenberg

But according to Sander's study, the press reports are simply wrong. Looking at last year's admissions, Sander told me, "Our research clearly shows that class-based affirmative action produced more than twice as many black admissions as we would have had under a system entirely driven by LSATs and grades." The effect on black enrollment was even greater. Because those African Americans who were admitted to UCLA on test scores and grades were almost certain to have been admitted to more prestigious law schools, and were likely to have turned UCLA down, Sander found that class-based affirmative action boosted black enrollment at UCLA to 13 times what it would have been under a system of test scores and grades.

Latinos fared extremely well under the class -based affirmative action regime. Almost the entire decline in Latino admissions at UCLA last year is attributable to the decline in applications -- a quirk due to the fact that racial preferences were barred in California and Texas, but nowhere else in the country. Had applications not declined, Sander found, Latino admissions would have been "virtually unchanged" under the class- rather than race-based affirmative action system.

If students had been admitted purely by test scores and grades, Sander found, UCLA's enrollment would have been 2.3 percent Latino, black, and Native-American. Under UCLA's moderately aggressive use of SES, the Latino, black, and Native-American representation was 13.1 percent.

Using racial preferences, these three groups had constituted 25.1 percent of the class. Among students who scored high enough to be considered, the class-based system disproportionately benefited people of color: 14.5 percent of whites, 25.9 percent of blacks, and 30.1 percent of Latinos in the targeted test range were admitted with an SES boost.

Meanwhile, Asian-American enrollment increased by 29 percent under the new class-based system, (from 16.7 percent of the student body to 21.5 percent) and white enrollment increased by 12 percent (from 58 percent to 65 percent of the student body). The switch from race to class preferences saw an overall decline in minority enrollment, then, but it seems odd to use the term "whiteout" to refer to a class that is -- after the end of racial preference -- 35 percent people of color.

Sander notes that UCLA was more successful than Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School or the University of Texas Law School in maintaining some racial diversity; and he attributes the relative success to UCLA's socioeconomic program. The other law schools, he said, informally incorporated SES considerations on an individualized basis, but "they haven't articulated any sort of set of criteria that they use" or implemented preferences in a systemic way, though he notes that Boalt Hall is "actively looking at what we're doing."

Which is not to say that UCLA's own program cannot be improved in order to make it more fair, and to increase the racial dividend in the future. Last year's program did not incorporate net worth; this year's program will. Likewise, family structure has not been part of the individual family measure, though Sander says, "We're talking about including it in the future."