July 15, 2014 4:54 PM

Appeals court rules UT can use race in admissions

“To deny UT Austin its limited use of race in its search for holistic diversity would hobble the richness of the educational experience."

A split appeals court on Tuesday upheld that the University of Texas, in a narrowly tailored way, can use race as a part of the university’s admissions policy.

The US Supreme Court remanded Fisher v the University of Texas back to the Fifth Court of Appeals to review the specific formula that UT Austin has used for race-conscious factors, which must be defined as “narrowly tailored.” The circuit court returned an opinion to support the UT Austin admissions policy, 2-1.

In a 69-page ruling, the Fifth Circuit court notes that the vast majority of UT-Austin students, 80 percent, come into the university under a race neutral basis. In the case of UT-Austin admissions, race is layered into a multi-layer application process beyond the Top Ten Percent guaranteed automatic admissions to the state’s flagship universities.

Lawyers for Abigail Fisher, a Sugar Land student who applied to the university in 2007, argued UT-Austin had achieved sufficient diversity – a critical mass of non-white students --without the use of race in admissions for open slots beyond the Top Ten Percent. According to the brief, however, use of race for non-Top Ten Percent students had not resulted in a flood of minority students onto the Austin campus.

By Kimberly Reeves