Diversity in Higher Education

Essay by ascottiUniversity, Master'sA, November 2014

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Running Head: ACHIEVING DIVERSITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION 1

ACHIEVING DIVERSITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2

Achieving Diversity in Higher Education

What was a significant and influential factor in American higher education in the last 150 (1860 on) years? Analyze this question by exploring in detail ONE factor, event or issue that influenced and impacted higher education. Be certain to explain the what, why and how aspects related to the influence/impact of the factor you select. Include at least three outside references in your paper as well as a reference list in APA style

For most of its history, American higher education was reserved for the white, affluent male. (Thelin, 2011) The 1800s saw the emergence of women's and African American colleges, however, even when the world of higher education started to allow the education of women and minorities, they were not treated with the same standards, often being given curriculum based around trade work and were often segregated.

(Thelin, 2011, pp. 55-102). Even as late in American history as 1917, "College enrollments represented less than 5% of the American population of eighteen to twenty-two-year-olds" (Thelin, 2011, p. 169). The factor of diversity has played a constant role in shaping the history of American higher education. The most important change that occurred in the last 150 years of higher education was the U.S. Supreme court case ruling in Regents of University of California v. Bakke which decided that race and ethnicity could be considered as an admission factor and established that race was a beneficial factor in the classroom. (Marin & Horn, 2008 p. 6)

In the 1978 case, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, a white applicant to the University of California, Davis, medical school, Allan Bakke, filed a law suit against the university claiming their admissions process violated...