While legal challenges progress against affirmative action, the policy still remains a very real part of the University, affecting both student admissions and faculty recruitment.
The University is legally obligated to use affirmative action in both hiring and admissions, said Karen Holt, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs.
The Office of Equal Opportunity Programs is the University's administrative branch that is largely responsible for developing and implementing affirmative action programs.
The University's affirmative action policy in faculty recruitment is multi-faceted.
Affirmative action in employment "is more than just opening the door to anyone who wishes to apply, but requires taking affirmative steps to review and alter policies, as well as undertaking recruiting targeted to groups who have not historically been represented," Holt said.
Annually, the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs reevaluates the University's employment practices and analyzes employment data to see whether minority groups are underrepresented in comparison to their availability, Holt said.
All of this information plus the University's plans to address any problems that the data reveals is laid out in a massive report known as the Equal Opportunity Plan.
Though the University's policy on affirmative action in employment is complicated, University President John T. Casteen III explained the essence of the policy in an introductory letter to the 2000-2001 Equal Opportunity Plan report, the most recent plan given by the University.
"The University's commitment should not be interpreted as requiring hiring a person who is not qualified or hiring a less qualified person," Casteen said. "Our commitment is to affirmatively and actively encourage minorities and women to seek fair and equal consideration."
Affirmative action also touches admissions at the University.
Past law often is relevant to whether states are required to use affirmative action in admissions, Law Prof. Kim Fourde-Mazrui said.
"As the result of legal action and oversight by the federal government, state schools in Virginia were required ... to take affirmative steps to rid the system of any vestiges of past discrimination," Holt said.
Though the University's affirmative action policy in admissions originally stemmed from a legal requirement to compensate for past discrimination, now it also represents the view among policymakers that diversity is an important aspect of the University community, Holt added.
As such, the University applies many forms of affirmative action in admissions. In trying to foster diversity, admissions officials may consider racial factors, as well as geographical, economic and ethnic considerations, or even sports or musical talent, Holt said.
Faculty and administrators laud the University's commitment to affirmative action in admissions, but question the effectiveness of the University's affirmative action policies with respect to hiring faculty.
"I think we can do better in both areas," said M. Rick Turner, the dean of the Office of African-American Affairs. But, he added, "I am very, very proud of our record in admissions."
Julian Bond, a history professor and NAACP Chairman, agrees with Turner that the University's affirmative action policy with respect to employment and particularly hiring of faculty has been less successful.
"I gather it works as well as any place else at admissions," Bond said of affirmative action at the University. However, affirmative action works "as poorly as any place at hiring faculty."
The Equal Opportunity Plan cited departments that have an under-representation of minorities. For instance, only 12 percent of physical science professors are women, and none of the professors in the Commerce School are black.
"I think it's definitely true that we haven't had the same level of commitment to recruiting diverse faculty as to recruiting diverse students," Holt said.
The reason for this, Bond said, is not necessarily racism, but instead opposition to any kind of incentive-based system for hiring more minority faculty.
"There is resistance in academia to offering rewards and punishments for succeeding or failing to hire minorities," Bond said.
The University is trying to make department heads and other top administrators more accountable by including dedication to achieving equal opportunity for minorities a part of evaluations, Holt said.
Though the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs continues to use affirmative action and strives to improve affirmative action at the University for now, the continuance of this policy is not set in stone.
If an affirmative action case reaches the Supreme Court, the decision it hands down, either overturning the policy or not, will determine its future more so than the effectiveness of the University's policies.
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