The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is looking into whether they should end California’s ban on affirmative action.
California’s Proposition 209 put an end to affirmative action in California universities when it was passed in 1996.
However, that law is now being challenged, which could make affirmative action legal in the state of California if the law is overturned.
Erik Fallis, Cal State University spokesman, argues that regardless of the decision made by the court, CSU students may not see much of a change.
“With regard to both of these laws, from the CSU perspective on both of these, the impact on us is relatively minor,” Fallis said.
Fallis mentioned that because of state law, California universities do not have any admission policies that select students based on race, but he believes that the campuses currently reflect the demographics of the community as a whole.
The CSU’s were designed to serve the top-third of high school graduates and transfer students.
“We’ve been able to maintain a student population that’s the most diverse in the nation and is really reflective of where California is,” Fallis said.
Jason Whitehead, a political science professor and director of the legal studies program at Cal State Long Beach, said that the courts sometimes see a certain amount of diversity as appropriate because of the nature of education.
The court said the interest of diversity is a compelling state interest.
“We learn better in an environment where we can get a robust exchange of ideas and different people from different backgrounds,” Whitehead said.
Although Whitehead said that there are some benefits to encouraging diversity on college campuses, he also said it is unconstitutional to look at race as a single factor when determining students’ enrollment.
“Race can’t be used as the only factor in making a decision,” Whitehead said.
Whitehead explained further that if race is looked at as a small part of many other factors — such as economic, cultural, and geographic diversity — then that could be taken into account when determining a student’s eligibility for enrollment.
“There’s a high percentage of residential segregation based on race, so that will in some ways increase minority populations just focusing on a particular neighborhood,” Whitehead said. “So there are certain ways to take race into account, without explicitly taking it into account.”
Chitra Wiltshire, a freshman fashion merchandising major, does not believe college admissions should be based on race.
“I believe that affirmative action in universities should be banned because it should be based on how smart you are or the extra-curricular [activities] that you have,” Wiltshire said.