Columbia Law School Retracts Requirement for Applicants to Submit Video Statement After Scrutiny
“has all the hallmarks of a willful effort to evade the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act”
Professor Jacobson predicted that schools would try to find ways to get around the recent Supreme Court ruling on Affirmative Action, and here we are.
Columbia Law School said on its website that they were going to require applicants to submit a video statement. When it got noticed, the school backtracked and said it was a mistake.
Aaron Sibarium reports at the Washington Free Beacon:
Columbia Law School Said It Would Require Applicants To Submit ‘Video Statements’ In Wake Of Affirmative Action Ban. Then it Backtracked.
Columbia Law School said on its website that it would require all applicants to submit a 90-second “video statement” in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ban on race-based college admissions.
“All applicants will be required to submit a short video, no longer than 90 seconds, addressing a question chosen at random,” the school’s admissions page said Monday morning. “The video statement will allow applicants to provide the Admissions Committee with additional insight into their personal strengths.”
Critics slammed the move as a thinly veiled attempt to defy the Supreme Court’s ruling and practice affirmative action by other means, using appearance as a proxy for race…
Reached for comment by the Washington Free Beacon, however, a spokesman for the law school said it had all been a misunderstanding and, by 6:00 PM Monday evening, Columbia had scrubbed the language from its website.
Here’s more from National Review:
Edward Blum, the founder of Students for Fair Admissions, the group behind the legal challenge that led to the Supreme Court’s decision, told the Free Beacon the video requirement “has all the hallmarks of a willful effort to evade the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.”
“What is a 90-second video supposed to legitimately convey that a written statement could not?” Blum said.
David Bernstein, a professor at George Mason Law School, said a video requirement “looks like an insurance policy in case their lawyers say ‘you’re not allowed to ask about race.’”
Could this have been any more obvious?
Holy COW, Columbia really needs "video" to evaluate students on their strengths? What else comes out in video that could not be done in a written statement? Hmm, let me think… https://t.co/Sq80R0zZeK
— Kenny Xu (@kennymxu) August 1, 2023
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
“The video statement will allow applicants to provide the Admissions Committee with additional insight into their personal strengths.”
Yeah, by assessing people based on their race. What insight would you get? I can understand videos of music performances/sports, but just a statement? Puh-leeze!
If this had been allowed to continue, the other leftist colleges would have piled on.
Meanwhile, “historically black colleges and universities” are allowed to be segregated colleges, completely unmolested.
Yes, and in no more than 90 seconds they can gain great insight into whether an applicant is the right ‘sort’ of person to attend Columbia Law.
It takes less than that to determine race and sex.
“that they were going to require applicants to submit a video statement”
Merit tossed out the window. They were going after the bros & the sistahs and what better way to put a thumb on the scale than to have a picture or more ideally a video.
Symphony orchestras have traditionally used blind auditions – NO visuals – in selecting its new members. Pure quality of sound had been the standard. The TV show The Voice uses this technique.
Sadly, even that measure is losing among PC-minded orchestras.
Symphonies don’t use blind auditions anymore. Too many men and too many whites were being hired.
I’m pretty sure the contestant pipeline for The Voice isn’t blind. That means, given that it’s a television show, that it is almost certain the best looking candidates are chosen to advance, not the best sounding.
I’d do the video in blackface while holding a gun sideways (gangster style) and demand they let me in.
Columbia has replaced the video requirement with a simple line requesting the applicant’s best time in the 100 meter breaststroke.
Friends don’t let friends have anything to do with Columbia
Seriously
It’s no joke.
The ACLU has been taken over from within. Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Same with SPLC
Same with ADL
And so on and on.
Columbia is simply not what it used to be.
Get over it
Get on with your life. I’m sure you’ll be fine.
The ACLU were commies from the very start. Literally.
Very true, but at least sometimes, their work had merit.
Columbia Law now requires applicants to submit their statements as rap songs – preferably in a gangster-rap style using the normal rap verbiage.
This video just came in… did we get an application from a “Max Headroom?”
ChatGPT to the rescue!!
Yours truly lived next door to that law school for two years… Everyone I knew called it the Toaster building.. Nothing that happens there surprises me.
Just a personal note.. the picture of the statue at the top of the article is Alma Mater.. She sits on the top of the Steps.. 26, of them.. I counted. University lore is that the first member of any class to find the owl hidden in her skirts will become valedictorian. Yes.. there is an owl.. No,,, I was not valedictorian.. not by a mile..oops. Just so y’all know.. it was more than ohhhhhhh, 4 decades ago. Things are so different now.
“Everyone I knew called it the Toaster building.”
I’d take that anyday over an old office I had in the “Toilet Seat Building.”
Is that ring supposed to be an Ω? Ω, Ω on the range…
I don’t know why Columbia has to bother with such nonsense.
By their names ye shall know them.
It’s only a “misunderstanding” when they get caught…
Could this have been any more obvious?
No, it couldn’t.
However, I would have loved to see the first hundred videos submitted with the person off-camera and a blank canvas displayed on the screen. Or a cartoon character in place of the person. (I might have found a ‘good’ use of AI!) And watch Columbia’s DIE lead doing the “Curses! Foiled again!” bit.
So basically get your black neighbor to do the video. It would be interesting to see them try and revoke an admission. I mean, if it worked in “Soul Man.”
“has all the hallmarks of…”
So, they got a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials? Seems legit.
You bet it’s a mistake! It should not be forgotten, and if there’s any hint that Columbia Law continues selecting students based on race, it’s strong evidence of mens rea (mal intent) on their part. Likewise Harvard’s defiant statements the day the ruling was released are evidence against them.
Harvard and Columbia had better be squeaky clean on this issue going forward. Doubts should not be resolved in their favor.
I thought Columbia was an elite college? If so why are morons running it? It could not have been more obvious if they required a photo.
You would think a bunch of lawyers would know better that to post a “Sue Me” sign on their website. They probably have also left an incriminating trail of emails and texts about what they are up to. Were the adults at the Law School on vacation when this happened?
Isn’t the essay written in Ebonics enough?