ading public university must - in building a tolerant and integrated society,". (What..)One of the main arguments made by anti-affirmative action groups is that the use of these special programs will lower the academic scores in many universities. While affirmative action has radically changed the student body, race wise, it has not decreased the academic caliber of admitted students (What..). At the Berkeley School of Law, since the elimination of affirmative action the average grade point average of those admitted rose only two one hundredths of a percent -- from 3.72 to 3.74 (What..). The Berkeley School of Law Admissions stated that without affirmative action the student average on the LSAT in 1966 only was raised one point.Other opponents of affirmative action feel that those minorities who have gained admission with lower test scores through these special programs are being cheated and set up to fail by entering prestigious liberal arts colleges such as Yale and Princeton with lower test grades. This concept has been disproven time and again over the past 30 years. According to former Ivy League presidents, William Bowen of Princeton University, an economist, and Derek Bok of Harvard University, a political scientist, blacks who enter these institutions with lower test scores achieve notable success after graduation (Bok). They earn advanced degrees at rates identical to those of their white classmates. They are even slightly more likely than whitesfrom the same institutions to obtain professional degrees in law,business, and medicine. They also become more active than their white classmates in civic and community activities (Bowen). Many nay sayers of affirmative action feel that this program has served its purpose and needs to be phased out of the admissions process. Even thought discrmination is not as overt as it was 30 years ago, higher education is still out of reach for many people of color. This can explain why only 18 per...
