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An Open Letter to UVA President James E. Ryan. The university’s admissions processes must comply with the Constitution.
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | October 13, 2023 | Walter L. Smith

Posted on 10/17/2023 5:30:12 PM PDT by karpov

The University of Virginia is facing a choice of historic significance: namely, whether to embrace admissions policies based on our colorblind Constitution or to engage in mass resistance to the supreme law of the land.

In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and UNC, the United States Supreme Court held that the admissions programs at Harvard and UNC violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court’s ruling is, of course, binding on the parties themselves. However, this was no narrow decision. The broad constitutional mandate of colorblindness underlying the majority opinion is applicable to the University of Virginia, as well.

On August 1, 2023, in response to the landmark decision, university leaders issued a statement outlining the institution’s new admissions procedures. “The Court has made it clear,” the statement read in part, “that colleges and universities may not consider race, for its own sake, in their admission decisions. […] We will follow the law.”

However, the statement went on: “We also will do everything within our legal authority to recruit and admit a class of students who are diverse across every possible dimension and to make every student feel welcome and included here at UVA.”

Henceforth, then, the following admissions policies will be in effect:

First, a commitment to merit-based admissions. “Our admission practices will continue to assess each candidate for their capacity to succeed academically at the University, and we will continue to offer admission only to candidates we believe to be academically qualified.”

Second, the shielding of racial or ethnic data from the view of admissions officers. “No one who assesses candidates for admission at UVA will have access to any self-disclosed “checkbox” information regarding the race or ethnicity of the candidates they are considering.”

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: affirmativeaction; college; collegeadmission; racialpreferences

1 posted on 10/17/2023 5:30:12 PM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

I am all but ashamed to be a UVA grad at this point.


2 posted on 10/17/2023 5:34:31 PM PDT by Free Louie
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To: karpov

The Constitution does not apply to private corporations and individuals, only the government. Colleges and universities cannot discriminate on the basis of race because of the Civil Rights Act, which is a law that was enacted by Congress, and can be repealed by a simple majority.


3 posted on 10/17/2023 5:37:40 PM PDT by proxy_user
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To: karpov

So to gain, err game, admission simple write an essay about all the challenges you overcame as a black, lesbian, transgender, immigrant that identifies as a furry.


4 posted on 10/17/2023 5:40:03 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA (Rebuild the Temple.)
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To: proxy_user

If these universities STOP taking government funds they can do whatever in the hell they want HOWEVER they will NEVER get off of the government trough!!!


5 posted on 10/17/2023 5:41:39 PM PDT by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: karpov

UVA has the largest DEI administrative staff of major any university in the US.


6 posted on 10/17/2023 5:41:39 PM PDT by indthkr
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To: proxy_user

Nearly every college and university in America receive federal tax dollars. Most also receive state tax dollars. UVA should not be considered private. I pay taxes ergo I am the boss.


7 posted on 10/17/2023 5:42:03 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA (Rebuild the Temple.)
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To: karpov

“No one who assesses candidates for admission at UVA will have access to any self-disclosed “checkbox” information regarding the race or ethnicity of the candidates they are considering.”

But will they have access to the applicants’ names? If so, Lakeisha will be chosen over Emma, Trayvon over David.


8 posted on 10/17/2023 6:10:24 PM PDT by The people have spoken (Proud member of Hillary's basket of deplorables)
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To: karpov

We will not discriminate in this discriminatory way.

You can fool the youngsters, but we old farts recognize bull shit.


9 posted on 10/17/2023 6:12:58 PM PDT by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump. )
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To: ConservativeInPA
"Nearly every college and university in America receive federal tax dollars. Most also receive state tax dollars. UVA should not be considered private. I pay taxes ergo I am the boss."

Right! Let's hear it for Hillsdale. One way to have freedom of education.

10 posted on 10/17/2023 6:17:04 PM PDT by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: MV=PY

I think Grove City college is another. Not quite as well known as Hillsdale.


11 posted on 10/17/2023 6:23:07 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA (Rebuild the Temple.)
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To: karpov

“...“that colleges and universities may not consider race, for its own sake, in their admission decisions. “

The slope has risen. Now what do you do when sports competitors, those that are greatly contributory to making money for the colleges, have to be considered for something besides race and success as there is no major for football, basketball or any other sport. So if they can’t get people in not based upon K through 12 or JC scholastic success, where do they go from there?

And that also means if an incoming freshman doesn’t meet the grades, as that’s all can be looked at, then unless the colleges can get the incoming freshmen to commit to post grad, there goes that part of the college income. Like I said, slippery slope.

wy69


12 posted on 10/17/2023 6:26:08 PM PDT by whitney69
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To: proxy_user

That I’m aware of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights say nothing at all about providing one a college education or a mortgage or health care or anything else at taxpayers expense.


13 posted on 10/17/2023 6:33:12 PM PDT by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: ConservativeInPA

UVa is a public university.


14 posted on 10/17/2023 6:56:45 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative)
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To: karpov

Jefferson owned slaves, so Marxism at UVA is OK.

Got it....


15 posted on 10/17/2023 7:13:52 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: karpov; All
Thank you for referencing that article karpov.

"In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and UNC, the United States Supreme Court held that the admissions programs at Harvard and UNC violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment [??? emphasis added]."


FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

Post-FDR era, institutionally indoctrinated Supreme Court justices got the Harvard and UNC admissions case wrong imo, probably because of a post-FDR era, institutionally indoctrinated understanding of the 14th Amendment's (14A) Equal Protections Clause (EPC).

More specifically, consider that when Virginia Minor, represented by her attorney husband, argued 14A's EPC to the Supreme Court to try to win the right for woman's suffrage in the 19th century, the Supreme Court disagreed with the Minors, noting that 14A did not add any new personal protections to the Constitution.

“3. The right of suffrage was not necessarily one of the privileges or immunities of citizenship before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that amendment does not add to these privileges and immunities. It simply furnished an additional guaranty for the protection of such as the citizen already had [emphasis added].” —Minor v. Happersett, 1874.

So since the states had the constitutionally unchecked power to prohibit women from voting before 14A was ratified, they retained the still constitutionally unchecked power to prohibit women from voting after 14A ratification.

Likewise, since INTRAstate schools had constitutionally unchecked power to make discriminatory admissions policies before 14A was ratified, they retained the power to make such policies after its ratification.

In fact, when the states ratified the voting rights 15th Amendment, the first and only constitutional amendment to protect rights base on skin color, they prohibited themselves from making discriminatory policies based on skin color only in the context of voting rights.

Following the example of 15A, the states would need to amend the Constitution to specifically prohibit school admissions policy based on skin color instead of the situation now where misguided justices base their interpretation of EPC, and other clauses, on their good intentions (axe to grind?) instead of the Constitution imo.

“3. The Constitution was written to be understood by the voters [emphasis added]; its words and phrases were used in their normal and ordinary as distinguished from technical meaning; where the intention is clear, there is no room for construction and no excuse for interpolation or addition [emphasis added].” —United States v. Sprague, 1931.

As a side note concerning Virginia Minor's fight for women's suffrage, consider that the Supreme Court did not suggest for Virginia Minor to claim to be a man in order to vote, the 19th Amendment effectively giving women that right.

"19th Amendment:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

16 posted on 10/18/2023 9:23:00 AM PDT by Amendment10
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To: karpov
class of students who are diverse across every possible dimension

"Every possible dimension"?

Does that include INTELLIGENCE?

17 posted on 10/18/2023 9:28:08 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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