Committees can be effective in helping accomplish organizational goals including affirmative action and non-discrimination goals. The most effective affirmative action committees are proactive and assertive. (MLW)

Explores changes affecting personnel testing and selection during past 20 years, noting that outcomes have often been antithesis of expressed or ostensible reason for change. Contends that some changes, designed to end discrimination, have institutionalized discriminatory practices as consequence of legitimizing methods of preferential treatment…

A study to identify factors influencing African American women (n=340) to enter the legal profession found that influences included value placed on educational and occupational achievement, having a working mother and other black women as role models, their parents' nonsexist attitude, early work experience, and educational opportunities provided…

Excerpts from Supreme Court opinions on legal standards for federal affirmative action programs include those from the majority opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a concurring opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, and a dissenting opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens. (MSE)

Urges community colleges to embrace community-based programing and accept the challenge of bringing diverse people together to work for the good of the larger community. (DMM)

Reviews Affirmative Action Act passed by Australian government in 1986 to prevent discrimination against women in employment. Notes that legislation requires universities to implement eight-step program. Explains how University of Melbourne used workshop approach to encourage people on campus to believe in new rules and procedures and to follow…

Analysis of affirmative action in South Africa suggests it fails because (1) it is based on developing blacks and women to function in a fundamentally unchanged work environment; (2) it is often seen as quota filling and not development; and (3) many expect it to fail and commitment is lacking. (SK)

Educators must recognize five realities before meaningful affirmative actions can occur. Affirming diversity is about social justice. Nonwhite and poor students bear the brunt of structural inequality. Diversity is a valuable resource. Effective teaching entails respecting who they are. Affirming diversity means becoming a multicultural person.…

Provides a historical account of affirmative action programs from their inception to the passing of the 1996 California Proposition 209 law. Court opinions, statistics, and reports of societal perceptions are used to show cause-and-effect relationships for the successes of these programs in the 1970s and challenges to their existence in the 1990s.…

Reviews Dinesh D'Souza's "The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society" (1995), exploring his neoconservative ideology in the context of concepts of the underclass and what it means to be Asian American or an immigrant. D'Souza perpetuates the Model Minority thesis, which is itself a form of inferential racism. (SLD)

Provides a variety of reports on the black experience and performance level trends in higher education. Reports include affirmative action issues in postsecondary education, enrollment and graduation trends, racial preference in tuition, institutional segregation issues, achievement test discrepancies, education's influence on black-white income…

Discusses how the University of California's Board of Regents, under pressure from students and lawmakers, rescinded its policies against affirmative action, although a state ban remains in effect. (EV)

Presents the opinions of a professor (the author) from the University of Michigan who leads the campaign against racial preferences in higher education, focusing on such topics as his feelings about the situation, why he challenged the university's admissions policies, peer reactions to his efforts, the reaction of black students in his classes,…

Analyzes the history of affirmative action admissions at the University of California. Focuses on two themes: first, the historical development of UC admissions; second, the debate over affirmative action. Considers problems in balancing the social contract with the idea of a meritocracy, race and affirmative action as a counterbalance, and the…

Uses the University of Washington as a case study illustrating the double bind basic writing programs are caught up in at public research institutions on the West Coast. Claims the university's Educational Opportunity Program writing sequence is at risk in the face of the anti-affirmative action movement, Initiative 200. (NH)