Fisher v. University of Texas
In 2012 the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas, a case in which a white woman named Abigail Fisher claimed that she was denied admission to the University of Texas on the basis of her race. As these arguments were going on, The Aquinas ran an article by the then Editor-in-Chief Christina Scully titled “Supreme Court reconsiders affirmative action”. In the article, Scully gives a brief description of the case itself and then goes on to describe the opinion of one University of Scranton professor, Dr. Jean Harris. Harris said that while she supports affirmative action, she feels that terms such as “affirmative action” and “preferential treatment” both have bad connotations. In her own words, “preferential treatment sounds like someone is getting something they don’t deserve, and that is not what is happening. Affirmative action, if it is called something else, is connected to the Jesuit mission of higher education….there is an understood importance of diversity. To have admissions policies that are furthering this makes sense at a Jesuit institution”. Another reason to support affirmative action, according to Harris, is that the Constitution allows for the promotion of the general welfare, and, as she says, “diversity is important to the general welfare of the nation”. It is for these reasons that Harris strongly supports affirmative action.