T o some, affirmative action in college admissions is a useful tool to create a student body of diverse faces, beliefs and experiences.
To others, affirmative action is a policy of reverse discrimination that infringes upon students' rights.
"I think there is a sense of frustration with the idea of affirmative action because [some applicants] are doing all that [they] can, and even if you do more, you may not get in" because of racial preferences, second-year College student Grayson Lambert said.
Asian Student Union President Patrick Lee said he does not believe students' rights are violated by a policy of affirmative action.
"Just because you had these test scores doesn't mean you're going to be the best," Lee said. "Obviously you had a flaw on your resume that admissions didn't like. Most of the time people are bringing up numbers, not qualitative skills U.Va. is looking for."
Minority Rights Coalition Chair Patrick Martinez said as long as there are no unfair practices in the affirmative action policy, such as setting a quota for each minority group, Caucasians' rights are not violated because spots are not directly taken from them.
"If you are white, you don't have less to contribute, you just have different contributions," Martinez said.
Director of the Center for Race and Law Kim Forde-Mazrui identified other cases against affirmative action, specifically citing arguments of "reverse discrimination" against the majority. This supposed unfairness causes resentment, which can lead to heightened racial tensions.
Forde-Mazrui also said affirmative action may reaffirm the very stereotypes the program aims to break.
"People assume [minority students] are not as qualified, that they only got in because of their race," Forde-Mazrui said, adding that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is concerned that affirmative action policies may lead some to believe that minority students are not capable of gaining admission based on their own merit.
Chief Diversity Office William Harvey said there are common misconceptions about affirmative action that have developed since its conception.
"I think what you've had, certainly over past decades, is an intentional effort to distort affirmative action," Harvey said. "Unfortunately this distortion has been quite successful. You hear affirmative action, and many people think it means many individuals get access to opportunities but don't have proper [qualifications]. What affirmative action says, and always has said, is when you have individuals that have the qualifications, they should have the opportunities that have been historically denied."
Black Student Alliance President Tamara Dottin said she believes the idea that minority students are accepted solely because of their race stems from the pressure to be accepted to college and the disappointment that ensues when a student is rejected.
"Minorities are definitely an easy target because of the stereotype of getting in because of their color or race, but I feel that's not really looking at the whole picture," Dottin said. "They need to look at what the student is bringing culturally to the table."
College Republicans Chair Amber VerValin noted that diversity spans over other areas beyond cultural differences.
"I don't think universities are working toward intellectual diversity when they employ race-based affirmative action," VerValin said.
In Lee's opinion, the fact that a student is offered admission to a prestigious university speaks for itself, regardless of the applicant's race.
"At this school, if you're going to make it, you're going to make it," Lee added.
Dean of Admissions John Blackburn echoed Lee's sentiment.
"We don't want to admit [minority students] just to get a percentage and have them flunk out," Blackburn said. "We want everyone to be successful, and most are."
There are two cases going before the Supreme Court this term regarding the constitutionality of affirmative action in high-school settings. While the court may confine its ruling solely to secondary schools, Forde-Mazrui said there is a chance that with the addition of two new, conservative justices -- Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito -- the ruling could extend to higher education.
If the Court eventually finds affirmative action unconstitutional in all educational settings, "you would expect to see fewer minorities, certainly in the top 30 universities, because that's where affirmative action is more necessary," Forde-Mazrui said.
Some states, such as California, Texas and most recently, Michigan have banned affirmative action through referenda. Blackburn said when California banned affirmative action in 1996, the black population at the University of California--Berkeley dropped from nine or 10 percent to three or four percent.
Even if affirmative action is not present, some universities have "developed race-neutral admissions criteria that indirectly enhance minority representation," Forde-Mazrui said.
For example, the University of Texas's system automatically accepts the top 10 percent of every Texas high school's graduating class.
"You're having kids from more Hispanic, black, rural white Texas schools going to college for the first time where they wouldn't have gotten in if [admissions] only looked at test scores and grades," Forde-Mazrui said.
Blackburn said it is likely that Virginia will issue a state referendum concerning affirmative action, adding that he did not expect the Supreme Court to declare the program unconstitutional across the board.
Although Dottin said abolishing affirmative action completely would have a negative effect overall, she is not opposed to tweaking the system.
Lee, on the other hand, said he believes abolishing affirmative action would be catastrophic for minority communities.
"I think that [getting rid of affirmative action] would be one of the worst things in the history of the world," Lee said.
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