Two-thirds of Americans do not agree with the Supreme Court’s recent decision that allows colleges and universities to take a student’s race and ethnicity into consideration when reviewing his or her admissions materials, a Gallup poll released Friday found.
Sixty-five percent of national adults polled June 29-July 1 disapproved of the ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas. But 31 percent approved of the move, saying it gives colleges the chance to diversify campuses by accepting students from minority groups.
The U.S. public overwhelmingly, at 70 percent, prefers that universities admit students based “solely on merit.” Only 26 percent said applicants’ racial background ought to be considered.
Those numbers have not changed much over the past 13 years Gallup has conducted the survey. Those who believe acceptance should be based solely on merit started at 69 percent in 2003, barely jumped to 70 percent in 2007 and slipped to 67 percent in 2013.
The same goes for the other point of view, which has stayed between 23 percent and 28 percent in the life of the poll.
This year’s respondents insisted high school grades, standardized test scores and a family’s economic circumstances should determine if a student is accepted into a school, not because he or she could bring more diversity to a college campus.
The more than 2,000 adult respondents were polled by telephone.
