The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear appeals regarding affirmative action policies at the University of Michigan. Action by the Supreme Court in this matter, regardless of the unpredictable outcome, will not remove social, political and educational problems related to the need for both diversity and “fairness.”
In selective institutions of higher education and particularly in professional schools, admission standards are frequently set at very high levels because of limited space and high educational costs. As a result, minorities would be significantly underrepresented if it were not for affirmative action programs, which, in effect, create reverse discrimination.
There are no easy solutions to the problem of creating diversity without discrimination. One approach that, to the best of my knowledge, has not been tried involves the use of a sophisticated lottery system. Under this approach traditional admission standards would be lowered to the minimum level required to meet quality standards for an institution. If that scheme would, as one might expect, result in many more applicants than can be admitted, a lottery could be used to select the students who would be accepted. Statistically, if several hundred students are involved, it can be predicted that diversity would be achieved and there would be no discrimination.
It is uncertain whether this approach would be politically acceptable, but it could be tried at least experimentally.
