scholarly journals AMERICAN SKIN: DISPENSING WITH COLORBLINDNESS AND CRITICAL MASS IN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

2011 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deirdre M. Bowen
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Critical Mass

        

scholarly journals Affirmative action, critical mass, and a predictive model of undergraduate student body demographics

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0250266
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Maes ◽  
Julia Tucher ◽  
Chad M. Topaz
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Public University ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University

Black and Latinx students are underrepresented on most public university campuses. At the same time, affirmative action policies are controversial and legally fraught. The Supreme Court has ruled that affirmative action should help a minoritized group achieve a critical mass of representation. While the idea of critical mass is frequently invoked in law and in policy, the term remains ill-defined and hence difficult to operationalize. Motivated by these challenges, we build a mathematical model to forecast undergraduate student body racial/ethnic demographics on public university campuses. Our model takes the form of a Markov chain that tracks students through application, admission, matriculation, retention, and graduation. Using publicly available data, we calibrate our model for two different campuses within the University of California system, test it for accuracy, and make a 10-year prediction. We also propose a coarse definition of critical mass and use our model to assess progress towards it at the University of California-Berkeley. If no policy changes are made over the next decade, we predict that the Latinx population on campus will move towards critical mass but not achieve it, and that the Black student population will decrease, moving further below critical mass. Because affirmative action is banned in California and in nine other states, it is worthwhile to consider alternative policies for diversifying a campus, including targeted recruitment and retention efforts. Our modeling framework provides a setting in which to test the efficacy of affirmative action and of these alternative policies.

scholarly journals Affirmative Inaction: A Quantitative Analysis of Progress Toward “Critical Mass” in U.S. Legal Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 987
Author(s):  
Loren Lee
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
The Supreme Court

Since 1978, the Supreme Court has recognized diversity as a compelling government interest to uphold the use of affirmative action in higher education. Yet the constitutionality of the practice has been challenged many times. In Grutter v. Bollinger, for example, the Court denied its use in perpetuity and suggested a twenty-five-year time limit for its application in law school admissions. Almost two decades have passed, so where do we stand? This Note’s quantitative analysis of the matriculation of and degrees awarded to Black and Latinx students at twenty-nine accredited law schools across the United States illuminates a stark lack of progress toward critical mass since Grutter and reveals the continued need for affirmative action in law school admissions.

scholarly journals Critical Mass for Affirmative Action: Dispersing the Critical Cloud

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 1266-1304
Author(s):  
Jessica Rose Kalbfeld
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Critical Mass

scholarly journals Affirmative action, critical mass, and a predictive model of undergraduate student body demographics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Maes ◽  
Julia Tucher ◽  
Chad M. Topaz
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Public University ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University

Black and Latinx students are underrepresented on most public university campuses. At the same time, affirmative action policies are controversial and legally fraught. The Supreme Court has ruled that affirmative action should help a minoritized group achieve a critical mass of representation. While the idea of critical mass is frequently invoked in law and in policy, the term remains ill-defined and hence difficult to operationalize. Motivated by these challenges, we build a mathematical model to forecast undergraduate student body racial/ethnic demographics on public university campuses. Our model takes the form of a Markov chain that tracks students through application, admission, matriculation, retention, and graduation. Using publicly available data, we calibrate our model for two different campuses within the University of California system, test it for accuracy, and make a 10-year prediction. We also propose a definition of critical mass and use our model to assess progress towards it at the University of California-Berkeley. If no policy changes are made over the next decade, we predict that the Latinx population on campus will move towards critical mass but not achieve it, and that the Black student population will decrease, moving further below critical mass. Because affirmative action is banned in California and in nine other states, it is worthwhile to consider alternative policies for diversifying a campus, including targeted recruitment and retention efforts. Our modeling framework provides a setting in which to test the efficacy of affirmative action and of these alternative policies.

Affirmative Action and Leadership Attitudes in Brazilian Women Managers

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gazi Islam ◽  
Sarah E. S. Zilenovsky
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Women Managers ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Preferential Selection ◽  
Justice Perceptions ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship

This note examines the relationship between affirmative action (AA) program perceptions and women’s self-ascribed capacity and desire to become leaders. We propose that women who believe that their organization implements a program of preferential selection toward women will experience negative psychological effects leading to lowered self-expectations for leadership, but that this effect will be moderated by their justice perceptions of AA programs. We test this proposition empirically for the first time with a Latin American female sample. Among Brazilian women managers, desire but not self-ascribed capacity to lead was reduced when they believed an AA policy was in place. Both desire’s and capacity’s relationships with belief in an AA policy were moderated by justice perceptions.

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