The Importance of Data in Affirmative Action

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"Universities fundamentally fail to use their data," he says. "I feel like part of my reservations about affirmative action are that universities care about getting them in the door so that they look diverse, but then they stop." What's probably more important is the quality of community colleges and less selective colleges and universities where most minority students go, professor says.

Peter Arcidiacono is an economist at Duke University and an expert on affirmative action. Arcidiacono served as an expert witness for Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFFA) in SFFA v. Harvard.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Peter Arcidiacono discuss the role that racial preferences have played in the admissions processes of elite American universities in recent decades; the workarounds that universities are likely to use in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision; and why real progress for less privileged students will require fundamental changes that look beyond the admissions practices of a few elite universities.

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

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