Education

As the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas at Austin, it became evident that the court’s past rulings on such policies have failed to provide colleges—or even the justices themselves—with clear guidance.

Read more in The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Supreme-Court-Hearing-Exposes/134976/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

WASHINGTON — The last time the Supreme Court heard a major affirmative action case about admission to public universities, in April 2003, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was at the court’s ideological center. And it was she who wrote the majority opinion in the court’s 5-to-4 ruling allowing race to be considered in admission decisions, as

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a case that centers on the questions of whether and how race may be used in college-admissions decisions. Wondering what this case means for colleges? You’ll find answers on this page.

Read more in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

As colleges eye a potential ban on the use of race as a qualifying factor in admissions decisions, evidence suggests that race-neutral alternatives that account for economic inequality can still foster racial and ethnic diversity on college campuses. That’s the main theme of a new report, “A Better Affirmative Action: State Universities That Created Alternatives

A new Yale study has revealed that there is a pervasive and unconscious bias on university campuses that favors male science students over their female counterparts. The result is fewer women in scientific professions. And as a recent Sunday Review article pointed out, it’s not just in science where women are underrepresented, electrical engineering, a

OXFORD, Miss. — There still may be a few bullet holes in the stately white columns of the Lyceum, the Greek Revival building here that symbolizes the University of Mississippi, but most were unintentionally plastered over during a renovation years ago.

Read more in The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/us/university-of-mississippi-commemorates-integration.html?_r=1&hp

AUSTIN, Texas — After a U.S. appeals court struck down race-based college admissions in Texas 16 years ago, the first Mexican American woman elected to the state Legislature proposed a simple change that transformed education in the state.

Read more in The New York Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-affirmative-20120928,0,5371730.story