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The University of Texas at Austin needs to consider race in admissions if it wants a diverse, representative student body, the school told the U.S. Supreme Court 0n Monday in a 70-page brief filed in advance of oral arguments in the case Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin.
The nation's high court will hear arguments in the case, which could bring an end to affirmative action at UT-Austin, this December.
The school was sued in 2008 by Abigail Fisher, who argued she was denied admission to UT-Austin because she is white. Her case has already reached the Supreme Court once. In that iteration, the court upheld the use of affirmative action nationwide but asked a lower court to scrutinize UT-Austin's policy. The lower court upheld the school's use of race in admissions, and the Supreme Court now is reviewing that ruling.
In Monday’s brief, UT-Austin cites its troubled racial history, noting that a black student wasn’t admitted to the school until 1950. The school also stresses that race is still an issue on campus today. This year, the school noted, UT-Austin became embroiled in a debate about the future of an on-campus statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The statue was eventually removed from its prominent location and will be housed in a U.S. history center instead.
