James Joyner notes this mornings WaPo article on potential intra state regional discrimination at the University of Virginia. James comments:
This strikes me as a horribly bad idea, for precisely the reasons that I oppose race-based quotas. It also seems obviously unconstitutional on equal protection grounds, although there are certainly court rulings going in the other direction.As a tax paying resident of one of the areas that is being discriminated against I'm feeling a little pissy right now. UVa is hard enough to get into, that it is beyond the hope of all but the best students. If one or both of my boys get a 4.0 average and a rejection letter because there are too many Northern Virginia students, it's lawsuits all around. Unfortunately I'll have to wait 16 years for the opportunity to sue. It will be interesting to see if a minority applicant from Northern Virginia who is denied admission due to geography can be found. That's a winning lawsuit waiting to happen.
The reason this will be less of a story than the UMich cases from a few weeks ago; the discrimination is regional, not racial. Quotas are quotas regardless of who fills them. Does anyone honestly believe that college admissions officials are not trying to mold and shape their freshman class makeup by pigeon holing candidates by race, sex, religion, and any other identifiable characteristic?
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It's bizarre. The obvious ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by James Joyner | July 22, 2003 10:38 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
It's bizarre. The obvious solution is to deny this information to the admissions people although, obviously, they'll have to have some record of address for correspondence. But no more racial, gender, or other data unrelated to performance.
1. Posted by James Joyner | July 22, 2003 10:38 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 22, 2003 10:38