Minority enrollments at selective colleges and universities have historically been low. Affirmative action programs have been a primary driver for increasing enrollments. These programs were called into question in the Grutter and Gratz US Supreme Court cases (2003). The Court’s opinions in these cases provide direction for institutions in setting admissions policy. Using a qualitative methodology, this study examined the University of Georgia’s response to the Grutter and Gratz Supreme Court decisions. The study utilized data from interviews with UGA officials, as well as documentary evidence, to chronologically reconstruct the actions that UGA initiated following the Grutter and Gratz decisions. The study utilized a narrative analytic approach to analyze UGA rationale for its action. It assessed officials’ statements to identify dominant narratives related to the use of race in admissions at UGA. This study positioned the dominant narratives of officials’ relative to competing understandings of admissions, race and the law extracted from the scholarly literature. A metanarrative was developed to highlight commonly held assumptions in the debate around the use of race in higher education admissions. The metanarrative was found to be a useful tool for managing competing perspectives in efforts to develop viable policy approaches for admissions in the future. The study is important in at least two ways: 1) it explains sources of conflict in the affirmative action debate and 2) it suggests the usefulness of narrative policy analysis for policy making related to race, diversity, and admissions in higher education.

<p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </p> <p align="left">People with disabilities are a minority group who has suffered disadvantage especially in the workplace. They currently enjoy Constitutional and legislative protection in a democratic South Africa.</p>

This thesis examines organizational programmes designed to manage racial identities in the South African workplace. It focuses on race-based affirmative action (AA) programmes. The AA debate has become a proxy for a more fundamental contest over the political boundaries of legitimate action and discourse. Notwithstanding pockets of resistance, there is consensus (amongst business leaders) on the need for AA policies. This is explained, in part, by post-1994 shifts in the boundaries of legitimacy. Rejection of AA is no longer a legitimate course of action. The AA controversy seems to be serving as a litmus test for the state of race relations in SA. The political transition has been accompanied by attempts to reconstitute political identities. It is suggested that the language of Africanism is providing the conceptual grammar with which to understand these processes. Race has become the primary axis through which an African identity, apposite to the 1990s, is being theorized. In the face of economic uncertainty and inequality the temptation is to naturalize identities. Hence the appeal of strictly defined race-based AA programmes. Despite the moral lexicon which has sprung up around AA, many companies are arguing that AA makes good business sense. It is needed to meet changes in the demographic profile of the consumer and supplier markets. The political and legislative imperative to implement AA means that companies need to make sense of it economically. This is not to suggest that managers are simply having to make a leap of faith with regards to AA. The issue is more complex: whilst many are making a virtue out of necessity, this necessity may prove to have its virtues. AA programmes cannot be understood in isolation from the economic 'realities' that enable, shape and constrain them. Given these adverse economic conditions, AA will, in all likelihood, have limited individual impact. At most, its gains will be modest. It will not eliminate the apartheid legacy of racial and gender inequalities, nor can it alone overcome the effects of other economic forces. AA needs to be located within a broader policy agenda aimed at promoting economic equity. It is in this respect that it has the potential to be an effective policy tool.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-177). Also available online.

Thesis (M.A. (Human Rights))--Mahidol University, 2005. / LICL has E-Thesis 0014 ; please contact computer services.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas Woman's University, 1992. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-103).

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1999. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2934. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references 84-86.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1997. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2954. Abstract precedes thesis as preliminary leaves [ii-iv]. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-82).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 181-189). Also available on the Internet.