A University of Texas task force wants the Legislature to put a cap on the number of
students admitted under a law guaranteeing admission for those who graduated in the top 10 percent of
their high school class. [AP Jan. 29, 2004.]
Editor’s Note: See below Sen. Jeff
Wentworth’s comment to an El Paso reporter, that affirmative action would yield fewer total complaints
from the public than ten percent.
“We have a well-established program to encourage students of our graduates to apply to Penn
and have had this program in place for years,” [Admissions Dean Lee] Stetson said. “Basically we say
we will give a measure of preference to students with an alumni affiliation who apply during the early
decision program.”
“I would find it difficult to believe we would change the
admissions program drastically to eliminate a program that has worked so well for us over the years,”
Stetson said. [From the Daily Pennsylvanian, “Texas A&M Abandons Legacy Admissions,” Brooke Daley
Jan. 28, 2004.]
[Quote:] College admissions need not be based exclusively on merit, unless university
officials claim that their school’s policy is to reward merit exclusively. Most universities aim to
create an environment that aids in the development of responsible, capable, and tolerant adults, which
entails the consideration of a host of factors that generate the requisite diversity to accomplish
this.[end quote from The California Aggie (UC-Davis), Letter, “The Hypocrisy of Popular Opposition,”
Adam Barr, Jan. 29, 2004.]
[Quote about Princeton Study] What the survey suffers from is the same problem that the top
10 percent law does: It treats all high schools the same. The automatic admissions program means that a
student with a 4.0 grade point average who does not place in the top 20 percent of his class at a
competitive school must fight for admissions while the valedictorian at a mediocre high school with a
3.5 grade point average is automatically admitted to the school of his choice. [endquote from Texas A&M
Battalion, “Unruly Behavior,” Matt Maddox Jan. 29,
2004.]
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