Affirmative Action in Higher Education

Abstract

Affirmative action in higher education has sought to increase the number of women and minority students and faculty in most educational fields, levels, and ranks. Voluntary measures to recruit black students and faculty began in the 1960s, before the government, in the early 1970s, imposed elaborate requirements to promote the employment of women and minority faculty. Women's groups pressing to change admission and employment practices they judged discriminatory have made far greater gains than blacks. In the last decade, Asians have also done surprisingly well as graduate students, faculty, and research staff in the sciences and engineering. The higher-educational status of blacks remains troublesome. In small part, this reflects many black students' preference for the professions over graduate school and academic life; in larger part, the consequences of slum life and schools.