scholarly journals Affirmative action, critical mass, and a predictive model of undergraduate student body demographics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Maes ◽  
Julia Tucher ◽  
Chad M. Topaz
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Public University ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University

Black and Latinx students are underrepresented on most public university campuses. At the same time, affirmative action policies are controversial and legally fraught. The Supreme Court has ruled that affirmative action should help a minoritized group achieve a critical mass of representation. While the idea of critical mass is frequently invoked in law and in policy, the term remains ill-defined and hence difficult to operationalize. Motivated by these challenges, we build a mathematical model to forecast undergraduate student body racial/ethnic demographics on public university campuses. Our model takes the form of a Markov chain that tracks students through application, admission, matriculation, retention, and graduation. Using publicly available data, we calibrate our model for two different campuses within the University of California system, test it for accuracy, and make a 10-year prediction. We also propose a definition of critical mass and use our model to assess progress towards it at the University of California-Berkeley. If no policy changes are made over the next decade, we predict that the Latinx population on campus will move towards critical mass but not achieve it, and that the Black student population will decrease, moving further below critical mass. Because affirmative action is banned in California and in nine other states, it is worthwhile to consider alternative policies for diversifying a campus, including targeted recruitment and retention efforts. Our modeling framework provides a setting in which to test the efficacy of affirmative action and of these alternative policies.

scholarly journals Affirmative action, critical mass, and a predictive model of undergraduate student body demographics

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0250266
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Maes ◽  
Julia Tucher ◽  
Chad M. Topaz
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Public University ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
University Campuses ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University

Black and Latinx students are underrepresented on most public university campuses. At the same time, affirmative action policies are controversial and legally fraught. The Supreme Court has ruled that affirmative action should help a minoritized group achieve a critical mass of representation. While the idea of critical mass is frequently invoked in law and in policy, the term remains ill-defined and hence difficult to operationalize. Motivated by these challenges, we build a mathematical model to forecast undergraduate student body racial/ethnic demographics on public university campuses. Our model takes the form of a Markov chain that tracks students through application, admission, matriculation, retention, and graduation. Using publicly available data, we calibrate our model for two different campuses within the University of California system, test it for accuracy, and make a 10-year prediction. We also propose a coarse definition of critical mass and use our model to assess progress towards it at the University of California-Berkeley. If no policy changes are made over the next decade, we predict that the Latinx population on campus will move towards critical mass but not achieve it, and that the Black student population will decrease, moving further below critical mass. Because affirmative action is banned in California and in nine other states, it is worthwhile to consider alternative policies for diversifying a campus, including targeted recruitment and retention efforts. Our modeling framework provides a setting in which to test the efficacy of affirmative action and of these alternative policies.

scholarly journals СТРАТЕГИЯ 3WIN УСТОЙЧИВОЙ КООПЕРАЦИИ ИТ-ИНДУСТРИИ И УНИВЕРСИТЕТОВ: R&D СТАРТ-АП ШКОЛЫ

2018 ◽  
pp. 71-76
Author(s):  
Михаил Викторович Лобачев ◽  
Светлана Григорьевна Антощук ◽  
Вячеслав Сергеевич Харченко
Keyword(s):  
Interaction Model ◽  
Student Body ◽  
The Road ◽  
Student Teams ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Degree Of Stability ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Model C ◽  
High Degree

A 3Win strategy for establishing a sustainable model of collaboration between the industry and universities is developed. Primary objectives of the work are outlined and are focused on the establishment of a model of sustainable collaboration between the industry, academic and research societies and student teams. This allows us to resolve the issue of preparing well qualified IT specialists in the necessary fields in collaboration with foreign partners and teams. This also presents the opportunity of development and research, targeted at the end consumer, by creating working prototypes or products. The sustainability of such a collaboration model supplements and is maintained by the long-term integration of mutual interests of the parties participating in the process. The analysis of the viability of this model is carried out on the basis of operation of R&D Start-up School. The definition of the 3Win strategy is established, as an interaction model, based on which each of the participating parties (the university, the company and the student body) receives their own personal benefits and achieves their own goals. In addition, this is a synergic model – where the cooperation of the participants results in a much more effective outcome, than individual efforts of each of the participants separately. The model, which is described as the 3Win strategy, in a way can be classified as a synthetic model, that incorporates the benefits of a number of other models developed previously. A1 – a department within the university as an incubator for developers, A2 – a department within the university as a center for certification support, Model B – a department within the university acting as a center for collaborative research and development and finally Model C – a department within the university as a business incubator. Simultaneously, this is a new class within the models of higher calibre, due to the fact that it facilitates a high degree of stability for the collaboration. The implementation of the model within the scope of international multi-university collaboration is described, along with its benefits. Examples of interaction between various components of the models based on existing cases are provided and the approaches for the 3Win strategy between the industry, universities and student body are described. The road-maps for further development of the aforementioned approaches are established

Sustaining Racial Retrenchment

2020 ◽  
pp. 164-187
Author(s):  
Matthew Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Black Students ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Student Body ◽  
New Policies ◽  
The University ◽  
Corporate Model

This chapter describes how the University of Michigan (UM) leaders fought to preserve the new affirmative action policies. In this context, diversity—the idea that a racially heterogeneous student body improved education and prepared students for a multiracial democracy and global economy—became a tool to defend and sustain the new policies. Diversity helped sever the purpose of affirmative action from addressing the inequality rooted in cities, offered ambiguous goals that helped officials avoid accountability, and advanced administrators' interests in introducing a corporate model for the university. The diversity ideal, in other words, did not spark racial retrenchment. Instead, diversity became a tool to sustain the university's policies of retrenchment. Administrators still had to work to retain control over the meaning of diversity and ensure it supported the new policies. When diversity took hold among administrators, black students and their allies tried to employ diversity language to undermine the policies of retrenchment. Administrators ensured that never happened.

scholarly journals Advice Not Taken

2021 ◽  
pp. 219-233
Author(s):  
Linda F. Bisson ◽  
Mary Lou de Leon Siantz ◽  
Laura Grindstaff
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
External Factors ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
The University

AbstractAdvice on how to build a more-inclusive academic community is emerging; however, this chapter suggests that such advice warrants “a grain of salt” depending on two circumstances: (1) the organizational culture needing to be “fixed,” and (2) the existence of extra-organizational factors that may shape how transformation can proceed. First, the existing organizational culture affects the processes needed to achieve a more-inclusive community, and defines what “more inclusive” will look like. Programs shown to be effective at one institution might not be effective at another. External factors may also affect local culture. For example, a long-standing ban on affirmative action programs and quota systems at the University of California meant that, even though other institutions found them to be effective, replicating those programs was not an option. The second concern derives from the nature of change needed. Barriers to inclusion are deeply rooted in historical traditions, ideologies, and social practices outside of any single organization, and often these barriers are applied unconsciously. This means genuine cultural transformation will occur only if the organizational community as a whole is committed to that change.

Affirmative Action for the Future

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Sterba
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Affirmative Action Program ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Action Program ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
The Future ◽  
The University

Diversity instead of race-based affirmative action developed in the United States from the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision in 1978 to the present. There have been both objections to this form of affirmative action and defenses of it. Fisher v. University of Texas could decide the future of all race-based affirmative action in the United States. Yet however the Fisher case is decided, there is a form of non-race-based affirmative action that all could find to be morally preferable for the future. A diversity affirmative action program could be designed to look for students who either have experienced racial discrimination themselves or who understand well, in some other way, how racism harms people in the United States, and thus are able to authoritatively and effectively speak about it in an educational context.

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