On several occasions, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the consideration of race in admissions decisions at colleges and universities is permissible. However, the court has said that only a narrowly-tailored approach would pass legal muster.
A new report by Althea Nagai of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative think-tank in Falls Church, Virginia, founded by Linda Chavez makes the case that public universities in Virginia – particularly the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary – give vast advantages to Black applicants that go way beyond the “narrowly-tailored” guidelines approved by the Supreme Court.
According to the report, when comparing applicants to the University of Virginia who had similar test scores on college entrance examinations and high school grade point averages, 74 percent of Black applicants were admitted compared to only 30 percent of White applicants. According to the latest JBHE annual survey which compares admissions rates at large research universities, in 2018, the University of Virginia admitted 26.4 percent of all applicants and 34.0 percent of all Blck applicants.
At the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg when comparing applicants with similar test scores and grade point averages, the Center for Equal Opportunity study found that 80 percent of Black applicants were admitted compared to 17 percent of White applicants.
