Edward Blum, director of the Project on Fair Representation, announced two lawsuits alleging unconstitutional racial bias in the admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday. According to Blum, the plaintiff for both cases is a group led by him called Students for Fair Admissions. Among its members are two 18-year-old men: an Asian-American student denied admission into Harvard, and a white student turned down by the University of North Carolina. Blum claims that Harvard's admission process discriminates against Asian American applicants and that the University of North Carolina failed to give acceptable consideration to race-neutral admissions. Both Harvard and University of North Carolina defended their policies, with Harvard going so far as to state - through its general counsel - that the "university's admissions processes remain fully compliant with all legal requirements" and that the process is "essential to Harvard's educational mission."
This case is reminiscent of past cases in U.S. History as well as past laws in our nation. For nearly a century, African Americans were denied the right to an education. A majority of adult slaves when the Civil War started were illiterate, and that number slowly decreased. For a long time, women were also denied this seemingly basic right. I believe that education is something that everyone deserves, regardless of their background. The more quickly we solve these issues, the more quickly we are able to build a stronger country.
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