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?
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