Affirmative action: UNC lawsuit could change college admissions nationwide. What you need to know.

A lawsuit against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has the potential to end affirmative action nationwide by the end of this month.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard two related lawsuits, one against UNC and another against Harvard University, that challenge the constitutionality of affirmative action in public and private universities. Its rulings are due any day; the court’s term ends in June.

A ruling in favor of the universities would protect affirmative action, allowing schools nationwide to continue considering race as one of many factors that go into whether a student should be admitted. If the court rules against UNC and Harvard, it would stop affirmative action in schools — and could open the door for future lawsuits to challenge its use in hiring, too.

Here’s a breakdown of what colleges can (and can’t) do with affirmative action, as well as the background of how these cases came about.

How affirmative action has affected UNC

North Carolina’s flagship university remains highly unrepresentative of the state as a whole, despite decades of affirmative action policies.

In this year’s freshman class at UNC, 87% of students are either white or Asian, despite those groups being roughly two-thirds of the overall state population. Just 8% of all UNC students are Black, despite one-fourth of the state identifying as Black or multiracial.

Black students, as well as faculty members, have recently criticized the university for not doing enough to support minorities on campus.

But the lawsuit, filed by the group Student for Fair Admission, says there are too many Black and Hispanic students being admitted, at the expense of white and Asian students with higher test scores. The lawsuit particularly focuses on Asian students, who make up 3% of North Carolina’s population and 22% of UNC students — a number the lawsuit says should be even higher.

“An entire industry exists to help them appear ‘less Asian’ on their college applications; and the unlevel playing field contributes to their unusually high levels of anxiety, depression, and suicide,” the lawsuit claims.

UNC’s academics remain at a high level: According to the university, most students scored between a 1340 and 1500 on the SAT, out of 1600 possible points. Nearly every student ranked in the top 20% of their high school class for grade point average, and most were in their high school’s top 10 total students.

https://www.wral.com/story/affirmative-action-unc-lawsuit-could-change-college-admissions-nationwide-what-you-need-to-know/20908123/

The party's over, and it's gonna be all about merit again. Keks are abound because the case was brought to the forefront by fellow PoC's