A couple of days back we were visited by Prof. Thomas Weisskopf from the Residential College and Department of Economics of the University of Michigan. He gave a lecture on affirmative action in higher education (AAHE), which was thought provoking, to say the least. After encountering four years of mainly ‘legal’ analysis, his perspective on AAHE, from an economics angle, was an interesting change.
He talked about a wide range of issues pertaining to affirmative action, ranging from the benefits of not excluding the creamy layer to ensuring that such programmes yield the maximum returns. According to Mr. Weisskopf, students who have the ‘potential to succeed’ need to be identified and affirmative action policies need to centered round them. Further, he also agreed that through such actions situational advantage needs to be reduced. The arguments he made raises crucial issues which need to be debated on. For more details about him and the papers he has written please visit http://sitemaker.umich.edu/tomweisskopf/home
No comments:
Post a Comment