Students for Fair Admissions Launches New Website Targeting University of Texas-Austin Admissions Policies

ARLINGTON, Va., March 2, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Today, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) announces the launch of a new website: UTnotFair.com. The purpose of the website is to educate the public about the unfair and unconstitutional admissions policies of the University of Texas at Austin and to encourage students who were recently rejected by UT-Austin to share their stories with SFFA.

SFFA is a non-profit membership organization comprised of over 21,000 students, parents, and other individuals who believe that race and ethnicity should not be a factor in whether a student is accepted to, or rejected from, any university.

In 2014, SFFA sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to stop these schools' unconstitutional race-based admissions processes. These lawsuits are ongoing and remain in the discovery phase of litigation.

UT-Austin has faced claims of racial discrimination before. In Abigail Fisher v. University of Texas-Austin, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 4-3 opinion issued a narrow ruling upholding UT's admissions policies as of 2008. While the ruling was a disappointment to those Americans who believe race and ethnicity should not be a consideration in college admissions, the opinion was very limited in its application. Indeed, the Court said that UT should not interpret its ruling as a license to continue using racial preferences indefinitely. UT thus must continually review race-neutral alternatives for achieving diversity before deciding to treat students differently by race or ethnicity.

Students for Fair Admissions believes that UT has not met its constitutional obligations and is vulnerable to a new legal challenge. Indeed, it is now 2017 and much has changed in Texas since Abigail Fisher sued UT nearly 10 years ago.

SFFA president Edward Blum said, "The fight against racial and ethnic classifications and preferences in college admissions will continue against UT-Austin and every school in the nation that continues to engage in racial discrimination. These policies are wrong and are not supported by the vast majority of Americans."

A few days after the Supreme Court allowed UT to continue using racial preferences, Gallup Poll, Inc. released a poll showing that 65 percent of Americans disagreed with the Court's ruling. The poll can be found here: http://www.gallup.com/poll/193508/oppose-colleges-considering-race-admissions.aspx

Blum concluded, "We encourage all students recently rejected from UT-Austin to visit UTnotFair.com and tell us your story. Together, we can end UT's discriminatory admissions practices and bring fairness and equality back to UT."

Cory Liu, who has joined SFFA as the new volunteer executive director, highlighted the particular impact of UT's admissions policies on Asian Americans: "Even though many Asian students grow up like myself—as the children of immigrants speaking a language other than English at home—Asian students are denied an equal opportunity for higher education because of UT's racially discriminatory admissions process. It isn't right, and it isn't lawful. Our Constitution guarantees every American equality under the law, regardless of their race."

Students for Fair Admissions
[email protected]
703-505-1922

Contact: Edward Blum
(703) 505-1922

SOURCE Students for Fair Admissions