UCLA Law Professor Argues that Affirmative Action Hurts Students It Intends to Help

UCLA Law Professor Richard Sander argued that affirmative action policies hurt those that they intend to help in a speech on campus last week.

Sander spoke last week at a meeting of the UCLA Bruin Republicans on the topic of affirmative action, a topic he addressed in his 2012 book, Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won’t Admit It. His book became noteworthy after it was cited by the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 2015 during the oral arguments of Fisher v. Texas.

Sander’s mismatch theory posits that “students will learn less when they are surrounded by students who had scores 10 points higher than them than if they were surrounded by students who had similar scores.”

The summary for his 2012 book argues that research reveals that affirmative action policies do not help those they are designed to help.  “Though their liberal leanings would indicate support for race-based policies, Sander and Taylor argue that the research shows that affirmative action does not in fact help minorities,” the 2012 book’s summary reads. “Racial preferences in higher education put a great many students in educational settings where they have no hope of competing—a phenomenon that they call ‘mismatch.’ … Compelling evidence shows that racial preferences double the rate at which black students fail bar exams and may well in the end reduce, rather than increase, the aggregate number of black lawyers.”

Sander’s experience with the book has been unusual. Before its publication, the Dean of UCLA Law School, Michael Schill, allegedly told Sander that his research was revolutionary. After it was published, he sent an email to the student body attacking its credibility.

“Michael Schill (the former dean of the UCLA Law School) told me privately that he thought it was a breakthrough study,” Sander explained. But after it was published, Sander said that Schill sent an email to the student body suggesting “there are those of us who seriously question the credibility of this research.”

UCLA Bruins Republicans President told The College Fix that they wanted to host Sander to educate themselves about affirmative action policies. “We really wanted Professor Sander to speak, and he chose this topic because he is an expert in it. I had never heard of mismatch before tonight, but it is definitely something that should be researched more,” he said.