Inside Report for Feb. 23, 2011

LSU senior Abigail Fisher may soon become the most famous student on campus.

Fisher’s lawsuit against the state of Texas is headed for a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court and could determine the future of affirmative action at colleges and universities nationwide.

A few years ago, Fisher, a native of Sugar Land, Texas, applied to but was rejected by the University of Texas in Austin. Fisher, who is white, sued the state, claiming the university uses discriminatory affirmative-action practices.

Whereas LSU has clear minimum academic requirements for ACT scores and grade-point averages, Texas operates under what is known as the “Top 10 Percent” law.

Essentially, the top 10 percent of the graduates from each Texas high school are guaranteed admission to the state university of their choice. After that 10 percent, the University of Texas has more leeway in choosing who attends. Fisher argues that after the 10 percent, the university focuses at least partly on boosting the racial diversity of the student body.

Fisher’s suit contends she just missed out on the 10 percent and was discriminated against as a white student. She has declined interviews by the media. Her only prepared statement reads: “My family and I are grateful that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear my case. I hope the court will decide that all future UT applicants will be allowed to compete for admission without their race or ethnicity being a factor.”

But what is Texas’ loss can be LSU’s gain, said Kurt Keppler, LSU vice chancellor for student life and enrollment services, especially when it comes to students from academically rigorous school districts who just miss out on the 10 percent margin.

“We often hear Texas students complain about ... whether they were in the 11th percent or 12th percent, and they came from a competitive school,” Keppler said. “Maybe that’s why we’ve done so well in Texas ... . There’s an awful lot of people who don’t fit in that (10 percent) category.”

Of course, the University of Texas is doing some things well. It is a more academically prestigious school than LSU and does boast a more diverse student body.

With LSU’s minimum admission standards of a 3.0 GPA on the core curriculum and a 22 ACT score ­— out of a maximum of 36 — the end result, for a variety of reasons, is that LSU has the lowest percentage of black students of all the state’s public universities, according to the Louisiana Board of Regents. LSU is roughly 75 percent white and 10 percent black. Every other in-state public university has an enrollment that is at least 13 percent black. But LSU does have more Hispanic and international students than other Louisiana schools.

“Some people would say maybe we’re a little too strict,” Keppler said of LSU’s standards.

As for the upcoming Supreme Court case, which could be heard as soon as October, some political pundits think Fisher has a strong chance of winning.

In the landmark Grutter v. Bollinger ruling in 2003, the court ruled that colleges could use some methods to ensure diversity, as long as there were no set point systems or quotas.

But the composition of the court has changed since then, with more justices seemingly of a mind to oppose affirmative-action policies. Also, the more left-leaning Justice Elana Kagan withdrew from the case, presumably because she worked on the case in some capacity in her previous role as solicitor general.

The University of Texas law team argues Fisher lost her legal standing to sue because she is on track to graduate from LSU. The fact that the Supreme Court took her case indicates the justices disagree with that position.

Regardless, the case of Fisher v. Texas is likely to loom large over the course of the next several months, and higher education will be paying close attention to the proceedings because recruiting and enrollment practices are on the line.

So the spotlight will shine on LSU’s Abigail Fisher, who became a Tiger after she was kept from being a Longhorn.

Jordan Blum covers higher education for The Advocate’s Capitol news bureau. His email address is [e-mail].