Justice in the application process

Taimu Yamauchi
section A01

        In the article “Situating Asian Americans in the Political Discourse on Affirmative Action”, I found it interesting how there are two possible methods for the process of choosing college applicants. One, which is the Right version of the preferred policy, is to be objective about each applicant, and to admit them or reject them fairly depending on set standards. The Left version of the preferred policy is to be subjective of each applicant, to balance out the demographics of the university. This was a major issue for Asian Americans, because depending on the Right and Left version of the policy, it determined their chances to get into college.

        Ever since the passing of the SP-1 and SP-2, which decided to take on the Right version of the policy, it is said to have benefited the Asian American group the most. To show this, here is a data of the current demographics of UC Davis undergraduates:

The data shows that 37.7% of the undergraduates are Asian, which is a larger number than the 37% consisted of White/Caucasian undergraduates. From this statistics, I could see why it would also pose a problem if the Right version of the policy was utilized. If race was not factored into determination, then, although highly unlikely, the university could possibly consist of the smartest applicants, which could end up being all Asians and White/Caucasians. Every school wants to be as diverse as possible, which is why the Left version of the policy would seem reasonable.

        Since I am Asian, it is hard to make an opinion completely objectively, but I feel as though it is only fair to the hard-working Asians to be rewarded of their hard-work, rather than being punished for it.

My discussion question is: Which method is the fairest for everybody? Is there a fairest way?