Let me use UCLA as an example, because this is personal experience with affirmative action.
My freshman year, there was protest all around the campus to urge the UC Regents to change their current admissions standards, which were modified to not take race, sex, or ethnicity into account in 1996, to a more holistic approach. This came as a result of admissions of african americans at UCLA dropping DRAMATICALLY after the passage of 1996's Prop 209. For example, in 2005, only 22 African American Males were admitted who were NOT on athletic scholarship, out of a total of 4,289 incoming freshman.
In 2006, UCLA's incoming freshman contained only 2% African Americans, the lowest it had been since 1973! This was the year I entered UCLA, so you can see why protest began, and actually led to change.
A more holistic admissions process was created which, while still not taking into account race and gender, made those admitting students read entire applications together as opposed to the academic and personal separately. Socioeconomic and disadvantagement factors would thus be taken further into account.
The result: In 2007, 407 African Americans were admitted, 453 in 2008.
I'll elaborate on what this shows about affirmative action, or rather its absence, on Wednesday
