Minority-Admissions Policies.

Many universities, graduate schools, and professional schools established special minority-admissions programs during the 1970s to assure equal opportunities to students who were either economically or educationally disadvantaged. Even in schools where special-admissions policies were not made public, many admissions officers reserved the right to select students who would provide for a diverse student body. These policies were examined by the Supreme Court near the end of the decade in the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision, and legal guidelines were established that in many ways upheld special consideration for minority applicants.

The University of California, Davis.

When a new medical school opened at the Davis campus of the University of California system in 1968, the minority population of that state was 23 percent, yet no black, Mexican- American or Native American student was admitted into the...