plus factor

plus factor
 n.— «he University of Michigan’s policy of giving favored minorities 20 extra points on a 150-point admissions index to achieve undergraduate “diversity” was unconstitutional, but its law school’s use of race as a “‘plus’ factor” to achieve “a “critical mass’ of underrepresented minorities” was constitutional—assuming, as O’Connor thought it realistic and pertinent to do, that in 25 years race-conscious admissions policies will not be “necessary.”» —“The Court’s Electoral Thicket” by George F. Will Washington Post June 30, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Join the discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Further reading

By a Landslide (episode #1611)

How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with just 26 letters, but the first Chinese typewriter looked like a small table under a huge disk with more than 4,000 characters. A new book chronicles...

Hot Gossip (episode #1609)

Gossip goes by many names: the poop, the scoop, the lowdown, the dope, the scuttlebutt, the 411, the grapes, the gore, and hot tea. Plus, John Donne’s love poems are among the greatest in the English language, even as they’re famously...