The regime of affirmative action — of preferences administered on the basis of race — is illegal in California. It nevertheless continues to operate, though it necessarily does so under conditions of secrecy and deceit. See, for example, Tim Groseclose’s Ricochet post “‘Independent study’ shows UCLA is cheating on admissions.”
When it comes to persistence in unlawful behavior involving race, university administrators are a hard case. Professor Groseclose returns to the case of UCLA in his new book, Cheating: An Insider’s Report on the Use of Race in Admissions at UCLA. The book’s findings are summarized in Maxim Lott’s Fox News report “UCLA prof says stats prove school’s admissions illegally favor blacks.”
Professor Groseclose performed his research and wrote up the results from inside the asylum; he is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics at UCLA. He holds joint appointments in the political science and economics departments.
It can’t be fun to blow the whistle on his friends and colleagues at UCLA. Lott reports that Professor Groseclose is decamping from UCLA to join the faculty at George Mason University.
In the new installment of InstaVision (video above), Glenn Reynolds interviews Professor Groseclose about the case of UCLA. I absolutely love this interview and, if you have any interest in the subject, my guess is that you will too.
I first wrote about Professor Groseclose’s new book last month in the post I titled “Massive resistance at UCLA,” from which I have borrowed the introductory comments above. Glenn is a great interviewer. With his nose for news and his taste for heterodox thought, Glenn opens the interview precisely on the question of massive resistance.
In the course of the interview Professor Groseclose mentions his UCLA colleague Richard Sander. Sander is the co-author (with Stuart Taylor) of Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won’t Admit It. It is a great book on the subject of racial preferences in higher education. I believe that racial preferences would be wrong even if they helped their intended beneficiaries, but their malign effects on all but the psyches of those who dish them out only add disgrace to dishonor.
NOTE: TaxProf Paul Caron posts Professor Groseclose’s interview on Fox News here.
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