The Senate Education Committee of the Tennessee legislature defeated a proposal that called for the elimination of preference “based on race, gender or ethnicity to any student or employee of the public institution of higher education.” If enacted the bill would have mandated that any state-operated college, university, or graduate school not consider race in any of their admissions decisions.
Similar proposals have been passed in California, Washington State, Michigan, Arizona, and other states. The Tennessee bill would have also prohibited minority set-asides for contract awards by state universities.
