What conservatives want is an end to racial preferences in college admissions at schools that get Federal money, which is about all of them.
I agree with this position, and I also think that other preferences should be removed, especially donation preferences, alumni child preferences, friend-of-famous-or-superwealthy-alum preferences, and other random preferences. Admission should be merit-based. Defining "merit" is a complex question, but it's also a completely different question.
I'm not sure I even like gender preferences, but if the differences are very slight and the girl is picked so that there will a balance, then maybe it's okay. But only if the differences are very slight in a transparent rubric where all factors are relevant to academic ability (e.g. "SAT/GPA/Our entrance exam") that doesn't include opaque non-academic factors like
donation dollar points or
child of alum points.
In fact, I'd say the same for all the other preferences too: if you have nearly-equally qualified candidates and you want to pick the donor's kid/Hispanic kid/famous actress, fine. But ONLY if they're truly nearly-equally qualified in some fair and pre-defined way. So, setting a low minimum number of points that will admit 40% of applicants and then cherry-picking as you please isn't allowed. If you admit 13% of applicants, your pool of borderlines has to be
very close to the 13% cutoff line. As in, close enough that the college won't be lowering standards to keep them enrolled and close enough that the parents can't find ways to game the system.
