Affirmative Action and the AAUP.

Abstract

Colleges and universities are now required by the federal government to have what is called an Affirmative Action Program for Equal Employment Opportunity. While few in academia would oppose positive steps to insure fair employment practices, the operation of existing programs has been the subject of much criticism. It has been charged that current programs encourage reverse discrimination, result in de facto quotas and in a lowering of standards, and (what is much less controversial) represent a significant loss of autonomy on the part of colleges and universities. Such charges in turn have been ridiculed as the rear-guard reaction of a white male establishment that opposes sharing its power and prestige with women and minority members. The report on affirmative action of the AAUP Council Committee on Discrimination, published in the AAUP Bulletin for June, 1973, took a uniformly positive view of affirmative action and asserted that any abuses in the program would be caused by a cynical failure to implement the program properly and not by intrinsic flaws in the design. This report is consistent with official AAUP resolutions on affirmative action as passed at annual meetings. My experience with affirmative action programs has given me a point of view that differs not only from the published AAUP report, but also from my usual predilections in such matters. My predisposition would have been to welcome something called an Affirmative Action Program for Equal Employment Opportunity, just as I had previously welcomed, for example, admission and scholarship policies which recognized that, because of past discrimination and other reasons, there are many persons whose past records seriously understate their true potential and ability. But, unfortunately, as events unfolded, it became clear that the actual program being implemented was inconsistent with equal employment opportunity and with other values as well.