Should affirmative action be legal?

The question of affirmative action boils down to a debate over group needs versus individual rights. The educational benefits of affirmative action are extremely important to all students and must be protected. The diversity generated by affirmative action programs in colleges is essential to a well-rounded education.
Additionally, the benefits of diversity are far more important than one person's desire to attend a school.

Though some argue that affirmative action unfairly favors minority groups, the program merely gives disadvantaged students a chance to catch up. Because many minorities live in poor school districts, their environment puts even extremely talented minorities at a disadvantage compared with other students. Last year, Business Week echoed a commonly held conclusion when it reported that "inner-city schools leave too many minority children behind." These disadvantaged students may have lower SAT scores than do kids in wealthier districts, but their potential is no less.

Moreover, thousands of students who do attend a school that employs affirmative action benefit from a diversified and enriched education. "I know in my bones that the quality of the intellectual experience and professional preparation in my classroom is much improved by the diversity of the students," Harvard University law professor Christopher Edley said in a 1998 U.S. News article. Diversity allows students to communicate with and understand people different from themselves, which, on a local and global scale, is becoming increasingly important.

If individual desires were put before group needs, diversity, unfortunately, would not exist. Since the University of Texas eliminated affirmative action from its law school's admissions process in 1995, Latino enrollment has been cut in half. In just one year, from 1996 to 1997, the number of black students in the school dropped from 65 to 11. The University of California at Berkley admitted 61 percent fewer minorities in 1998, the first year it stopped using affirmative action. Also, the number of women who teach in the University of California has decreased by 22 percent since affirmative action was removed.

Society depends on the diversity that affirmative action nurtures. Diversifying student bodies at colleges and universities nationwide will allow minority and disadvantaged demographic groups to enter the job market. As long as inner-city schools remain poor in quality, professional opportunities will remain unequal unless diversity is established at the college level.

Because affirmative action creates diversity and grants opportunity to those who would not necessarily have a chance to get into college, it benefits large groups on several levels. Other admissions programs that are based on non-academic qualities in an applicant, such as artistic or athletic talent, function in the same way and are just as critical to the quality of education at an institution. The group benefits of affirmative action far outweigh individuals' needs.