Toward a New Affirmative Action

Gwenda Kaczor for The Chronicle Review

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By Richard D. Kahlenberg

In 2003 affirmative-action policies in higher education dodged a bullet when a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the use of race in admissions at the University of Michigan Law School in Grutter v. Bollinger. But a second bullet is now headed straight toward the heart of race-based preferences. The projectile is not likely to kill affirmative action outright but rather significantly change its nature. In the future, such programs are likely to place much greater emphasis