A Vanderbilt University chair said that race-based admissions would prevent minorities from attaining leadership positions and “influential” employment. Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair Professor of Law and Economic Joni Hersch made this assessment in a legal studies research paper, “Affirmative Action and the Leadership Pipeline.” The paper is expected to appear in Tulane Law Review soon.
Hersch wrote the article in response to the ongoing court case, Students for Fair Admissions (SSFA) v. Harvard. In the lawsuit, SSFA alleges that Harvard University discriminates against Asian applicants in its admissions process by engaging in racial balancing.
The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) is weighing whether it should take on the case, after a lower court ruled in favor of Harvard. If SCOTUS were to take on the case, it would have to decide whether or not to overrule the landmark case Grutter v. Bollinger. Retired SCOTUS Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in the majority opinion that race-based admissions were valid because diverse student bodies offer educational benefits.
On Monday, SCOTUS requested that the Biden Administration weigh in on the case. As a result, SCOTUS won’t hear the case until next spring at the earliest.
In Hersch’s paper, she asserts that artificial diversity in leadership roles and positions of influence will absolve the country of past evils: slavery, segregation, discrimination, etc., with Hersch referred to collectively as “racial injustice.”
“The already existing lack of diversity in leadership roles impairs our nation’s efforts to reckon with its history of racial injustice,” wrote Hersch.
The underrepresented minorities (URM) across a variety of top professions such as law and medicine, Hersch asserted, don’t properly reflect the population. She also argued that diversity in higher education offers distinct educational and societal benefits, such as creating a pipeline for URMs to become professionals.
The Tennessee Star reached out to Hersch for comment. She didn’t respond by press time.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Vanderbilt University” by Stablenode CC 4.0.
Yeah, let’s not pursue excellence. Let’s focus on “diversity” as a qualification standard. Remember that the next time you have surgery, get on an airplane or need a well qualified attorney.
Actually, Tennessee is more Republican-controlled than it is Republican! You got it backwards, Mr. Some Dude!
Hey, I’m a Vandy alumnus from the class of 1974. Don’t knock it!
My children were victims of race-based admissions standards at the University of Texas many years ago. It mattered not that they graded and tested at a higher level. They just had the wrong color of skin. For the life of me I once thought that equal opportunity actually meant equal opportunity. Silly me.
Sounds like Vandy already promotes based on race. If the were promoting based on best qualified they shouldn’t be having a problem. But it sounds like they are making excuses, that Minorities aren’t qualified (in their eyes) and have to be treated special.
You people are sick.
Screwing over Asians ,White Americans .Latin. MUST STOP
Don’t lower the bar .
Some people don’t belong in College .And you know it .
Test scores ,Grades .Intelligence, and Reason , excel in job skills .
Some of these students are illiterate
in an Ivy league college?
.Gibberish debate teams winning debate awards
these teachers are LAZY .
Whole school administrations need to be FIRED.
And Vanderbilt University sinks lower and lower into the stinking pit of Marxism and social justice. Vandy always wanted to be the “Harvard” of the South.
Sad to see Vanderbilt go down this dangerous path.
1) By the time I got into college, I couldn’t care less about the appearance of my fellow students. At the time, though, I was a “non-traditional student”, and didn’t participate in all the campus life activities. I got a piece of paper that says I’m qualified to do my job., and I am just as “educated” as those that grew up with “activism” as part of their Curriculum Vitae.
2) As long as there is a “need” to “absolve” past sins, there is no justice. The demand for retribution is not just, but vengeance.
3) Can we talk about the “Historically Black Colleges and Universities” for a moment? If “black people” want to be in their “community” they are more than welcome to stay in their racial enclaves. You will note there is not a push to force white students on Fisk University or Meharry Medical College. Tennessee State University has hit a few bumps and that is because it is a public school.
4) Don’t give me the junk about the lack of “leadership opportunities”, either. Every time someone makes that claim, I see an insult to the fine, upstanding people “of color” I see with titles like “manager”, “director”, or “commissioner”. A side consequence is the number of people of a similar skin hue that end up working under those people, too.
Vanderbilt person says we need racism. Got it
Yes, it’s a condescending racism in which certain racial groups whose alleged inferiorities must be accommodated by discriminatory preferential treatment.
This is further proof… Tennessee is becoming Democrat controlled. Not Democrat, just Democrat CONTROLLED. Which means electoral votes in presidential elections, the course of Tennessee’s politics, the steady removal of carry laws, our other Rights, Castle Laws, etc.
FACT: Joe Biden only needed to win 17% of USA’s 3,141 counties, to become The United States President. USA’s most populous counties, with Democrat controlled cities. And Joe wins. 17%.
Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville… all Democrat controlled. That’s probably 17%.
Oh, well? We’ll say, “We tried.”?
PS: Fight against this takeover by the destructive Democrat Party! Speak UP, speak OUT, and speak often!