White Teen Sues UT Over Admissions Policy
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An 18-year-old Sugar Land student sued the University of Texas at Austin on Monday, challenging the school’s use of racial preferences in its admissions policy.
Abigail Noel Fisher, a senior at Stephen F. Austin High School in Sugar Land, was named in the lawsuit filed on her behalf by the Project on Fair Representation.
Project director Edward Blum, an activist against race preferences in Houston before he moved to Washington, D.C., said Fisher, who is white, will graduate in the top 12 percent of her class next month but learned in late March that she was not accepted at UT-Austin.
The lawsuit doesn’t challenge the top 10 percent law, which guarantees admission to those who finish in the top 10 percent of a Texas high school’s graduating class. Instead, it contends that UT-Austin unlawfully uses racial and ethnic criteria to select other students.
{snip}
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Austin, and by mid-afternoon, Blum said he had heard from several other students who wanted to join as plaintiffs. His organization has a Web site, www.utnotfair.org, to draw interested students.
The top 10 percent law was adopted after a 1996 court ruling stopped Texas colleges and universities from considering race and ethnicity in deciding admissions; UT-Austin’s minority enrollment is higher now than at any time since the law passed.
A 2003 Supreme Court ruling said colleges and universities may consider race and ethnicity in order to create a diverse student population only if race-neutral methods haven’t worked.
Blum argues that the top 10 percent law has worked, making it illegal to use race-conscious considerations for students who do not graduate within the top 10 percent of their class.
{snip}
UT-Austin has 20 days to respond. The lawsuit asks that she be re-evaluated by UT-Austin in a “race-neutral” manner and admitted if she qualifies. It also asks that the school be stopped from using race-conscious criteria for students who fall outside the top 10 percent law.
{snip}
[Editor’s Note: the Fisher v. Texas complaint can be read or downloaded as a PDF document here.]
Email Jeannie Kever at jeannie.kever@chron.com.
(Posted on April 8, 2008)
Comments
This is a step in the right direction, but you need to sue for damages that raise the stakes.
Don’t just sue to get them to do what they were supposed to do. Sue for emotional damage, psychological damage, civil rights violations, etc. Get creative and get the damages high enough that the school is really concerned about losing.
Because in the end, these schools really don’t care about poor whites or civil right violations, but they do care about losing millions of dollars in lawsuits or any loss of federal funding.
Posted by at 6:40 PM on April 8
The “Top 10% Law” should be challenged. In many black and Hispanic schools, one doesn’t have to be very bright to finish in the top 10 percent of one’s class, yet one will get automatic admission to UT over an 89th percentile white student in a white school, who is probably a lot brighter.
Posted by Question Diversity at 6:50 PM on April 8
Keep those lawsuits coming white boys and white girls. Bring all those “Progressive” Commie anti-American and anti-white institutions to their knees.
I hope one day to come fact-to-face with one of these Reds so I can attack him/her like a rabid dog and vent all my frustrations of the last 30 years.
Posted by GetBackJack at 7:32 PM on April 8
Good for her wanting to sue. If it was a black person, fire & brimstone would be happening!!
A girl that used to go to my church several years ago was in a nursing program at our local college. She made the cut to get into the nursing program, but wasn’t admitted because she was White!! They needed to admit one more black person, who had a lower score & did not make the cut. But being black was the only thing that got the girl in the nursing program.
My friend was so mad, especially when the school admitted the reason for her not being admitted in. One of the college employees (in the HR dept) that told my friend of their “reasoning” was a black girl. hmmmm….. My friend was furious. She quit the local college & enrolled in another college & aced the nursing program.
I asked her why she didn’t file a suit or complain, she said that she thought nobody would believe her or take it serious.
Now what if it was the other way around??? Al Sharpton would be headed to my town!!!! eek!
Posted by Dixie Land Doll at 7:39 PM on April 8
Sweet.
Posted by at 8:07 PM on April 8
Sugar Land schools are probably a margin better than most of the inner city schools, since it’s in the southwestern suburbs where people began fleeing in the 1980s to escape the crime, pollution, traffic and smug hipsters of the city.
Posted by Vijay Prozak at 8:40 PM on April 8
Good cause the only those idiots understand is ….losing money and a law suit…time the tables get turned on THEM!!!! I hope she wins big time!!
Posted by lydia at 9:08 PM on April 8
“A 2003 Supreme Court ruling said colleges and universities may consider race and ethnicity in order to create a diverse student population only if race-neutral methods haven’t worked.”
Somebody please show me where in the constitution it has anything to say about racist affirmative action, except to declare that it isn’t constitutional.
It’s not up to these mediocre types in funny clothes to decide what the constitution says or doesn’t say, because interpretation of the document is very clear to the average person. Silly conclusions by these people like the above belong in the comic section of the newspapers. How pitiful that they have to be taken seriously.
Posted by Ranger at 9:53 PM on April 8
We must use the color of one’s skin for qualification to college. If we don’t, then Africans will not be able to go to college. If we relied on ability and intelligence, colleges will be hideously white. We can’t let this happen.
Skin color must be used as a basis. I use it in my day to day life and society finds nothing wrong with that, so why find fault if colleges judge students by the color of their skin? What is wrong with that? Even the Supreme Court said it is legal to judge one by skin color and to treat those with different skin colors differently. It is the hallmark of intelligence, open mindeness and tolerance. We have come a long way in ending racism and judging by skin color has helped us achieve this goal of equality.
I have a dream that someday I will get into college based on the color of my skin. Don’t deprive me of a college education since I have the wrong skin color, or last name for that matter. No human is illegal and no melanin cell is wrong, either.
Posted by at 10:49 PM on April 8
It’s not up to these mediocre types in funny clothes to decide what the constitution says or doesn’t say, because interpretation of the document is very clear to the average person. Silly conclusions by these people like the above belong in the comic section of the newspapers. How pitiful that they have to be taken seriously.
Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson both despised judicial review, and I’ve come to agree. Congress has the power to strip the feral (sic) courts of all powers of judicial review and give that power to juries. It should do so immediately.
Posted by qwerty at 10:57 PM on April 8
About time. More, more,….
Posted by Bobby at 11:42 PM on April 8
Remember that it was our current President who signed this 10% quota into law when he was Gov. of Texas. Curious George has been one of the most anti-white Presidents in history.
Posted by Bernie at 7:51 AM on April 9
A 2003 Supreme Court ruling said colleges and universities may consider race and ethnicity in order to create a diverse student population only if race-neutral methods haven’t worked.
——-
So in other words play fair but if that doesn’t work go ahead and cheat?
Actually I don’t believe that actually was the ruling of the Bollinger decision which is what I assume this is referring to but whatever.
Posted by at 10:06 AM on April 9
Fighting affirmative action will have no effect on the long term and much if any on the short term fate of the anglo european. With immigration trends as they are both legal and illegal we will be a minority not only in the United States but also in the land in which our ancestors lived for tens of thousands of years. The national sovereignty of the United Stats will continue to slowly “dissolve” as we have more and more people in the United States who have absolutely no nationalistic loyalty to the united states as a nation, and who simply use it for the free money and affirmative action. I can just see a picture of some recently immigrated young black somalis being filmed before or after a commercial break on one of our network morning shows I can see them smiling and waving little american flags. Some cheap made in china trinkets they bought somewhere close to one of the numerous government offices they have been visiting for a variety of purposes. Can you see these people in the future after they are settled and financially secure thanks to the US taxpayer volunteering some of their time to go and help the minutemen secure our mexican border, can you imagine them opposing affirmative action? What kind of politics do you think they will support.
Posted by Chiefofclanfearghus at 12:41 PM on April 9
Unfortunately, this suit does not name as defendants the individual administrators responsible for implementing this disgraceful policy. Only when these creatures begin to lose their homes to lawsuits will they stop hiding behind “policy.”
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 1:51 PM on April 9
One writer says that we have come a long way in ending racism and judging by skin color has helped. Is he kidding?
Posted by Frank at 2:39 PM on April 9
It’s not about her race. There are plenty of white girls from Sugar Land at UT.
This girl is just not smart enough. She had a 1180 SAT score. She doesn’t have any special talents. Top 10% = admission. Not Top 10% w/ a better SAT score, or an extraordinary talent = admission. Go to Baylor.
Posted by at 9:49 PM on April 11
9:49pm:
You make a very valid point. I used to work as a student aide for well respected University Honors Program in the northeast. I was a gradaute student and I had an administrative assistantship. I am now a guidnace counselor for a high school prepatory school.
I remember in 2003 when a student (a high school senior) came into the Honors Center. He was livid at the fact that he did not get admitted into the Honors Program. He started shouting that he had 1220 SAT’s, a 3.95 gpa college prep, placed second on his high school debate team etc… He went on and on. This student was White.
The reality was that in order to be considered for the Honors program at this university minimum requirements were
1290 SAT’s or a 29 ACT.
3.5 gpa
If you were the valedictorian of your class, you could have a 28 ACT.
In fact, there were a number of students who had 4.2 ,4.3 GPA’s. There were some excellent students enrolled in the program. The point that I am getting too is that while this student had impressive acadmeic credentials,they were not good enough for our Honors program.
He threaten to sue and went into a profanity laced tirade about how incompetent we were etc… he eventually left and slammed the door on his way out. To my knowledge, he never brought a suit forth.
Some of these students have been led to beleive by either mom or dad, their teachers, or soemone that they are the “chosen one” and that very few people compare to them.
These kids are going to be alot better off realizing one thing!
THEY ARE NOT GOING TO GET EVERYTHING THEY WANT IN LIFE!
The sooner they learn this the better. Although I am sure what happened to this student, I am sure that he was able to go to a well-respected school with his record, which was nothing to be ashamed of.
Life does not end if you do not go to the school of your dreams!
The same holds true for this young lady. Work hard during you undergraduate years so that you may be able to gain admission to a U Texas or similar academically prestigious school for grad school.
My niece wanted to attend Princeton or Yale for her undergraduate career. Guess what, her SAT’s were not good enough. She ended up going to Penn State. We know what academically “terrible” school that is! She worked religiously hard during her four years there and ended up at Cornell for graduate school!
She did not go crazy threatening to sue a school, cuss people out, run to the local newspaper or run out in the street in the neghborhood with a bullhorn acting the nutcase in any way! She made the best of a situation!
Like 9:46 said, she should apply to Baylor or some other state school. She will survive! Others have! Why can’t she?
Posted by Valarie at 1:39 AM on April 12
In 2001,my brother wanted to go to Stanford. Guees what? his SAT’s were only 1220. He did not get in. He ended up going to UCLA. He ended up loving it there.
He is in his final year of law school at guess where? Stanford? No! Yale!!!
Sometimes not getting into your first choice is not always a bad thing!!!
Posted by Nelson at 1:44 AM on April 12
9:49 PM and Valerie:
I think lost through all this is that these two individuals to whom you refer won’t be any better or worse off in life that they were not accepted to the school of their choice and had to attend a “lesser” school. Except for a very small cadre of “old boys networks” revolving around the Ivy League, you’re going to get the job you’re going to get regardless of the specifics of your education. In the case of whites, you’re not going to get the job, because the jobs are apportioned to non-whites.
Posted by Question Diversity at 11:44 AM on April 12
Some of you who are encouraging these students to bring on these lawsuits need to be careful about a possible backlash!
I think that once people like 9:49pm and Valarie start seeing more and more White kids who although may be well qualified to attend certain colleges and univerisities using the fact that they are being discriminated against becauee they are White, when in actuality, it may be another factor such as SAT scores that are too low, or GPA that was high but not high enough, not enough math or foreign language courses etc… even decent minded White people will begin to rethink thier previouis positions and began to become more dismissive of such complaints as sour grapes or invalid.
This will make it really bad for the White kid who is a legitimate victim of discrimination?
Posted by Mark at 5:19 PM on April 12
Valarie:
I was curious, do you remember how many non-White students were enrolled in your Honors program or college during your tenure there?
Posted by George at 5:21 PM on April 12
While I am sympathetic to anyone who is the victim of discrimination, this young lady (at least from what I can see) does not really have a strong case.
For all we know there may have been White kids with lower scores than hers who were admitted to U Texas because they were athletes, played five musical instruments, good balerina dancers, or grew up on a pig farm in Idaho.
These students could add to the diversity of a school as well as opposed to a student who has good grades and a solid academic record(from what I see her record was solid, not exceptional)
Kids like this are a dime a dozen. I think that she may have a difficult time proving her case.
Posted by Linda at 5:28 PM on April 12
George:
I remember during my four years at the university, five Asian students , three East Indian students, Two Black students and One Latino student were University Honors Scholars.
Each year, 25 University Honors Scholars were admitted per class.
All of these minority students were very well qualified. In fact, I remember one of the Black Students and one of the Asian Students scoring perfect SAT’s. The other Asian student (like the other Black student was her class salutatorian). I do not ever remember any Black men or Latino women (I am talking about non-eurpoean Hispanics) being University Honors Scholars.
Posted by Valarie at 7:53 PM on April 12
Valarie:
Was this Black student who had the perfect SAT score biracial?
Posted by Matthew at 4:05 AM on April 13