Texas schools ponder race role in admissions

Four states banned racial criteria in school admissions policies before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the practice. Now, one is reconsidering.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Feb. 9, 2004.

In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld race-conscious admissions, University of Texas medical schools are looking at reintroducing race into their admissions policies.

"We received a mandate from the academic executive council and are considering this as we speak," said Lauree Thomas, MD, associate dean of student affairs and admissions at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Data show that the number of underrepresented minorities becoming physicians has not kept proportional pace with the growing U.S. minority population. Training more minority physicians is often cited as one way to stem the health care access problem facing many minority communities.

Schools getting state dollars in California, Florida and Washington stopped using race in their admissions criteria after such practices ended in the late 1990s. Schools in these states will continue to follow their state laws.

Texas also had to abandon race-conscious admissions after a 1996 U.S. Court of Appeals decision in Hopwood v. University of Texas School of Law. Because the Texas decision was a judicial one, not a result of a voter initiative, as in California or Washington, or an executive order from the governor, as in Florida, Texas medical schools might reconsider their admissions criteria.

So far, only the University of Texas medical schools are considering action. One element to be worked out is whether considering race would increase the number of underrepresented minorities admitted.