Vintage Story: Dec. 3 The Batt

Gates forum to address admissions policies
By Eric Ambroso
Published:

Wednesday, December 3, 2003
Graphic by Ruben Deluna

Texas A&M President Robert M.

Gates will hold an open forum today to discuss changes in admissions requirements and to announce the

creation of the Tuition Policy Advisory Committee. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in June that race

can be considered in a university’s admission policies, and Big 12 schools, such as the University of

Texas, have already looked at implementing affirmative action policies in their

admissions.

The Supreme Court upheld a previous ruling by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court

of Appeals that the University of Michigan Law School’s admissions policy is

constitutional.

The school had been using race as a factor in admissions. The court held

that the law school’s goal of admitting a “critical mass of under represented minority students,”

does not necessarily turn the program’s admissions process into a quota system. However, the court

disagreed with Michigan’s undergraduate system of automatically distributing points to students from

minority groups in the admissions process.

In response to the ruling, Gates appointed a

task force in August, headed by Karan Watson, dean of faculties and associate provost, to research

A&M’s admissions policies.

The task force completed its work and submitted its

recommendations to Gates. He reviewed the recommendations and will announce a final decision about

whether the University will change its admissions policies at the forum.

“I’m going to

talk about changes in admissions requirements and also some new outreach programs,” Gates

said.

Unlike A&M, UT proposed alterations to admissions policies this semester. The

implementation of any changes made to the A&M’s admissions policies will be delayed for at least a

year.

According to the Texas Education Code, a university must publish its admissions

requirements at least one year prior to the date applicants for admission are considered using the new

guidelines.

The statute requires delaying implementation of any new admissions policies

until the Fall 2005.

Gates will announce which

changes