UNC admissions policy may have to change after Supreme Court decision

With a looming U.S. Supreme Court decision that could make UNC’s admissions policy illegal, the University is scrambling to find a solution that would maintain its diversity within the law.

In Fisher v. University of Texas-Austin, UT-Austin is being sued for its race-based affirmative action practices in admission.

If the court rules in favor of Abigail Fisher, who claims she was not admitted to UT-Austin because of her race, affirmative action programs across the nation would be ruled unconstitutional.

Stephen Farmer, UNC’s vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admissions, said the University has used race as a factor since 2003 in accordance with the Grutter v. Bollinger decision, which ruled that race can be a factor in admissions decisions.

In a meeting Tuesday, the Advisory Committee on Undergraduate Admissions discussed options UNC would have if the court favors Fisher.

“The court will rule in June, and we are trying to be ready for whatever the ruling will be,” Farmer said.

He said that UNC has looked into race-neutral alternatives before.

Jen Kretchmar, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions, said research was conducted in the 2006-07 school year on using socioeconomic status instead of race as a means to achieve diversity.

Kretchmar said this plan just didn’t work.

Farmer said this summer, the University looked into following the 10 percent model that is popular in some other schools, including UT-Austin.

With this plan, UNC would automatically accept all in-state students that are in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

According to the results, diversity would be maintained, but it would come at the expense of academic merit.

“You don’t want to sacrifice one for the other,” Kretchmar said.

With no plan yet in place, Bobbi Owen, senior associate dean for undergraduate education, tasked the committee with creating new proposals.

“We will bring this back with some action items in the spring,” she said.

In the meantime, Farmer vowed to continue working to maintain diversity at UNC.

“This University has been on record time and time again that it is our job to get a racially diverse student population, and we don’t intend to stop doing that ­— even if the law should change,” he said.

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.