Close X
Monday, November 11, 2024
ADVT 
International

US Supreme Court To Take Up College Reservation Adversely Impacting Indian Diaspora

Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Dec, 2015 12:32 PM
    The US Supreme Court is set to take up next week a case challenging the legality of reservations based on race in colleges and university admissions that adversely impact the Indian diaspora.
     
    The case questions the use of race as a criterion for admission by Texas University in affirmative action programmes saying it violates the constitutional guarantee of equality for all. Universities say they are meant to help disadvantaged communities like those of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans and to ensure diversity. 
     
    The use of race in admissions sometimes turn into racial quotas similar to caste-based reservations in India and hurt Indian Americans and other Asians.
     
    Indians, along with other Asians, are treated as the equivalent of a most-forward community and are therefore affected even more than whites when quotas are used by universities. The universities assert that quotas or similar affirmative action programmes are needed to ensure diversity in the student body.
     
    Because of this Asians have been required by some of the top universities to score much higher than whites in the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), a common entrance exam, which is one of the determinants of admission. This is meant to prevent the student body being dominated by Asians, who get higher SAT scores and school grades.
     
    If the Supreme Court prohibits using race as a factor for admissions in the Texas case, more high-scoring Indians and other Asians will be able to enter Ivy League and other elite universities purely on their merit.
     
    The case that the Supreme Court is to hear was brought by a white woman who said the use of race violated her right to equality guaranteed by the US Constitution as many who ranked lower than her were admitted while she was turned away.
     
    Indian diaspora organisations, along with other Asian groups, have complained to the federal government about what they said was the discrimination faced by students from their communities in admissions to Harvard University.
     
    Community leader Thomas Abraham told IANS, "Our children compared to white students have to be much ahead to get admission. Even if they are at the top of the class and have outstanding extracurricular activity record, they still face discrimination in admission." He added, "My own daughter felt this when she applied to colleges."
     
    This was because universities were using intangible ways of grading to eliminate qualified students from Asian communities, he said. "We only want that the most qualified students should be admitted on the basis of uniform criteria and the right to equality guaranteed by the Constitution," he added.
     
    Abraham is the founder-president of the Global Organisation of Persons of Indian Origin, a former president of the National Federation of Indian-American Associations and a board member of the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin. These three organisations, along with the BITS Sindri Alumni Association of North India, were signatories to the complaint against Harvard, which was seen as the starting point in their campaign to deal with the problem in all institutions.
     
    The complaint said, "Many Asian-American students who have almost perfect SAT scores, top 1 percent GPAs (grade point average), plus significant awards or leadership positions in various extracurricular activities have been rejected by Harvard University and other Ivy League Colleges while similarly situated applicants of other races have been admitted."
     
    It cited a study by a Princeton University academic that found Asian-American students had to score 140 points more in the SAT than whites for admission to some elite universities.
     
    The Federal Office of Civil Rights dismissed the complaint because it said a federal case on similar grounds was filed last year by another group, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), against Harvard and its outcome will be binding. That group has also filed a similar case against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
     
    Harvard University has asked the court hearing the case against it to delay the proceedings till the Supreme Court decides on the Texas University case. Therefore, Supreme Court ruling will determine how Indian-American and other Asian-American students are treated in college and university admissions.
     
    Quotas were used in first half of the last century against Jews because of their high academic performance compared to that of Christians. In its court filing SFFA accused Harvard of "using racial classifications" for "the same brand of invidious discrimination against Asian Americans that it formerly used to limit the number of Jewish students in its student body."

    MORE International ARTICLES

    Indian American Substitute Teacher Mihirbhai Patel Arrested For Paid Sex With Male Student

    Indian American Substitute Teacher Mihirbhai Patel Arrested For Paid Sex With Male Student
    Mihirbhai Patel, 24, met the teenaged boy earlier this year on a website. The two arranged to meet for sex at a Whiteland area motel and then at the home of a relative of the boy

    Indian American Substitute Teacher Mihirbhai Patel Arrested For Paid Sex With Male Student

    Nawaz Sharif Invites Geelani To Pakistan

    Nawaz Sharif Invites Geelani To Pakistan
    Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has invited Hurriyat Conference chairperson Syed Ali Shah Geelani to that country, the Kashmiri separatist leader and the organisation said on Saturday.

    Nawaz Sharif Invites Geelani To Pakistan

    British-Indian Daljit Nagra Appointed BBC Radio 4's First Resident Poet

    British-Indian Daljit Nagra Appointed BBC Radio 4's First Resident Poet
    Nagra will also appear on Radio 4 shows and social media platforms, while writing original work to commission, The Telegraph daily reported.

    British-Indian Daljit Nagra Appointed BBC Radio 4's First Resident Poet

    No Inquest Into Murder Of British-indian Businessman Shrien Dewani's Wife

    A South African court last year acquitted Shrien Dewani of ordering the murder of his wife, Anni Dewani, 28, who was shot on the outskirts of Cape Town in November 2010 during their honeymoon.

    No Inquest Into Murder Of British-indian Businessman Shrien Dewani's Wife

    Five Hells Angels Members Freed, Trial Cut Short As Judge Scolds Crown

    Five Hells Angels Members Freed, Trial Cut Short As Judge Scolds Crown
    MONTREAL — Five Hells Angels on trial on murder and conspiracy charges have seen the case dismissed because of lengthy delays in the disclosure of evidence by the Crown.

    Five Hells Angels Members Freed, Trial Cut Short As Judge Scolds Crown

    Leave Australia If You Find Our Values 'Unpalatable', PM Malcolm Turnbull Says After Brutal Attack

    Leave Australia If You Find Our Values 'Unpalatable',  PM Malcolm Turnbull Says After Brutal Attack
    Last week, 15-year-old, Farhad Jabar, shot dead a 58-year-old police worker while reportedly shouting religious slogans before dying in a gun-battle with police.

    Leave Australia If You Find Our Values 'Unpalatable', PM Malcolm Turnbull Says After Brutal Attack