A recent Boston Globe article reported that the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) restricts its affirmative action to four "under-represented" groups: African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans from the mainland United States. The policy is creating a clash of opinions at Tufts and around the country.
Critics of the policy take issue with the AAMC's power to decide which minority groups are under-represented. The new policy is prompting institutions of higher learning, as well as students, to take another look at affirmative action and how it factors into the medical school and undergraduate admissions process.
The AAMC moved for this change in order to carefully reflect the minority groups they feel are under-represented in the percentage of applicants to medical schools. Here at Tufts, some students similarly recognize that affirmative action is necessary to create a diverse student body at institutions of higher learning.
"I'm in favor of affirmative action because it gives minority students equality in the admissions process, which should be the same for both college and medical school applications regardless," said Laura Santos, a sophomore and pre-med student.
Sophomore Mariana Suarez agreed with Santos. "I think [affirmative action] is great because it gives more opportunities to students who have the qualifications but may not have the recognition. I just hope that I'm not here because of affirmative action, nor that my friends are, but I do understand that some people need it," Suarez said.
Sophomore Molly DeCock, however, feels that affirmative action needs to be reconsidered in its intentions. "It seems unfair to me that someone's ethnicity could and/or should influence admission to an academic institution. It seems contradictory to me to hold people back when they are just as qualified," said DeCock, a pre-med student.
"I think it makes a huge difference in undergraduate admissions because most colleges have to fill quotas for race, gender, etc. However, med school is much more of a numbers game, and although affirmative action is definitely present, it is much harder to enforce," DeCock said.
While other students believe that affirmative action is still necessary because of the continuing existence of discrimination, they also see both sides of the coin. "Affirmative action redresses racial and sexual discrimination but, at the same time, it often favors members simply because of their race or their sexuality," said junior Vincent Chu, who was recently admitted to Tufts Medical School.
Chu believes decisions for admission should focus on merit instead of ethnic background. "I personally think that, in highly competitive schools like Tufts, affirmative action should not be used. Students should be admitted based on their talents and not because of their skin color. When students are accepted this way, I think that the diversity of our campus will remain as diverse as it is now," Chu said.
Junior Daniela Fontecilla feels equally divided about the issue. "It is important to get a diverse population of students, but I don't know if affirmative action is that fair. They should look only at the qualifications of the students, just as long as they don't discriminate against minority students," Fontecilla said.
The majority of US medical schools follow the policy decreed by the AAMC by choice, including the Harvard Medical School, where a ceremony recently took place to celebrate three decades of affirmative action. Speakers at the ceremony highlighted the vast strides that have been taken to integrate the campus since its all-male, all-white composition of the 1950s and 1960s.
As reported by the Harvard University Gazette, medical student Donnella Green observed that, despite the progress made, she has still experienced isolation because of her minority status. "Barriers still exist. Without affirmative action, we will lose the gains we have made. If we want a student body that accurately reflects our society, we must continue to have affirmative action," Green said.
While Tufts and Harvard are classified as urban universities, even at smaller, more rural colleges the issues behind affirmative action still exist, and emerge differently due to the size and scope of their environments. Alexandra Falzon, a junior at Mount Holyoke College, finds that the process involves gender issues as well. She believes that admissions officers should begin to take the qualifications of the applicants into account.
"Women at my school are for the idea of affirmative action because it definitely helps women have a place in the work force. However, I think that affirmative action is just an excuse," she said. "If you did the job well it wouldn't matter if you were a man, a woman, or a minority. I think things should be merit-based ultimately."
Junior Jessica Ohly reflects one point of view on the affirmative action debate at Williams College. "We have one of the more diverse liberal arts student populations in New England, which at a place like Williams isn't saying much. However, at a small school like this, [affirmative action] can only be a good thing. With only 2,000 students here, without affirmative action we would have a very limited community, and the experience would not be a complete education," Ohly said.
While Ohly believed that larger universities would retain diversity without the help of affirmative action, Tufts junior Allen Lee felt otherwise. "Unfortunately, I think that affirmative action is still necessary. It would be nice to believe that decisions could be made based only on merit, regardless of race, but it is na??ve to think discrimination doesn't exist. Affirmative action is still needed not only to protect minorities from discrimination, but also just to give more minorities opportunities they may not have otherwise," Lee said.
"The ethnic groups that felt left out [in terms of AAMC's policy] have a right to feel disadvantaged in the application process, but it is impossible to make a new category for every group of minorities, there are just too many for that to be practical," Lee said.
Lee noted further that he felt that affirmative action had not played a role in his acceptance to the Tufts Medical School. "I doubt that being Asian gave me any sort of advantage in the application process. I have not heard of any places of higher education that lack an Asian representation," Lee said.
