A Summary of the CaseThe University of California opened a new medical school at its Davis campus in 1968.As of 1973, the medical school had established a dual admissions process: one for regular applicants, open to applicants of all races, from whom the best would be selected on the basis of grades, test scores, and interview results, to fill eighty-four places in the freshman class; another for special applicants, limited to blacks, Chicanos, Asians, and American Indians unlikely to be admitted in competition with the regular applicants, from whom the best would be selected on the basis of grades, test scores, and interview results, to fill sixteen places in the freshman class.A reasonably accurate description of the second admissions process might be to call it a "minimum racial minority set-aside."It was plainly not a maximum racial minority quota, as of course applicants of all races were considered on completely equal terms within the regular admissions process.(In fact, for 1973 and 1974 combined, twenth-four racial minority students [most of whom were Asian] were among the 168 enrolled pursuant to that process -14 per cent of the total.)Neither was it exactly a minimum racial minority quota: the medical school was not determined to fill it "at all costs," but only to the extent that those eligible for consideration were deemed capable of coping with the regular curriculum, once admitted.In 1973 and 1974 alike, however, a full complement of sixteen students was admitted in each year pursuant to this second admissions process.
