Article by Lee C. Bollinger from June 24, 2016
THE Supreme Court’s decision this week in Fisher v. University of Texas is a profound relief, and a cause for celebration among those of us in higher education who have long insisted that affirmative action is vital to our schools’ missions and to society as a whole.
The ruling means we can continue to assemble diverse student bodies and it has validated college administrators’ judgment about the qualities needed to achieve educational goals. More important, the opinion greatly strengthens earlier precedent, set in Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003, that race-conscious admissions policies are constitutional.