Commentary by Roger Hernandez
Nobody applauded harder than I did when California voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996, banning racial preferences in college admissions. Or when the Supreme Court earlier this year struck down the University of Michigan’s patronizing admissions system, which automatically granted 20 extra points to all black and Hispanic applicants.
But nobody was gladder, either, that under Proposition 209 as well as under the Supreme Court ruling, the University of California and the University of Michigan could still take into account the social, economic and educational backgrounds of individual students when deciding whom to admit.