The American Council on Education and 37 higher education organizations recently filed a friend of the court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court defending the practice of using race in college admissions, Inside Higher Ed reported.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case on Dec. 9 about a white woman who was rejected for admission at the University of Texas at Austin because the university uses race and ethnicity when determining who can be students. The college's admission guidelines are designed to ensure more minority representation in the student body, but the plaintiff says such criteria violate her constitutional rights.

In their court brief, the 38 education associations say there is a compelling interest in providing student diversity on campus because of the educational benefits such diversity provides.

"Colleges and universities cannot claim to provide an excellent education if they send students into the world wearing blinders," the groups said.

"So, too, in fields such as law, the natural sciences and medicine, where international collaboration increasingly is indispensable, students today must receive direct experience with people of different backgrounds, including race and ethnicity. Students cannot adequately acquire it from books, and they will sorely need it."

The groups also said that colleges, not judges, should decide how to seek diversity.

Among the organizations that signed the brief are the American Association of Community Colleges, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, American Speech-Hearing-Language Association, Association of American Colleges and Universities, and National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

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