Of the many ways individuals understand issues of race in the American university, none is more controversial than affirmative action. These two words set off a variety of thoughts and perceptions about race, each of which is relative to the individual and his or her personal experiences that typically end up putting people on one side of the affirmative action argument as supportive or the other as opposed. While this complex and controversial discourse plays a critical role in multiple areas of our society, its impact in Oregon higher education is most noteworthy.
But before anyone can take a position for or against affirmative action, they need to understand the reasons it exists in the first place. It is not adequate to assume that affirmative action policies were designed with any particular set of ideas in mind, or to believe they are in place today because of how much emphasis universities place on diversity and multiculturalism. Instead, we should point the finger at an enemy that infects so many areas of our culture and society without our even knowing it: discrimination.
Affirmative action policies in higher education, whether admissions or hiring related, have never been designed to give preferential treatment to a specific person or group. Such guidelines do not exist as a form of reparations for people of color in the United States, nor do they perform a sort of “reverse discrimination” as many opponents might argue. Affirmative action policies exist primarily to identify the barriers to equality in our systems of education, unpack why such barriers tend to target certain individuals and groups, and attempt to explain to both affirmative action supporters and opponents that discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, religion, sexual orientation and socio-economic status exists as a negative component of our educational institutions. Such policies recognize the historical impact this discrimination maintains in the present and are a proactive rather than reactive discourse toward ending future discrimination.
In the Oregon University System, it is no secret that underrepresented students, many of whom self-identify as students of color, tend to support affirmative action policies because they experience first-hand how ingrained discrimination works against any effort to expand equality for all students. Perhaps this is why April 1, dubbed National Take Affirmative Action Day, is so critical to our state and the University of Oregon. On this day, the Oregon Students of Color Coalition, in conjunction with our University’s multiple ethnic and cultural student unions, intends to stand publicly united with underrepresented students statewide and remind our state’s higher education players, including students, faculty and staff, that affirmative action policies have been instrumental in Oregon’s ongoing battle against discrimination. Thus, it can be argued that affirmative action policies unite individuals around a most worthy cause (combating discrimination) and simultaneously provide a critical, proactive method toward enhancing equality of access to higher education for all Oregonians.
David M. Van Der Haeghen
Political Science Major