The ruling in favor of the University of Michigan’s law school, declaring their use of race as an admissions factor legal, is a benefit to both current and prospective students and should be upheld.

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court ruled 5-4 to reverse a lower court decision stating that race itself cannot be taken into account when examining collegiate candidates.

Most people do not consider themselves to be racist, so they might refuse to give race much consideration or believe that it would be necessary when choosing from a pool of possible students.

But in reality, race remains a red flag that can hold deserving applicants back.

It does students a great disservice to not have a diverse population around them to learn and grow with, and this decision is a broad-based recognition of this importance.

Test scores are important, but other factors must be considered. Socioeconomic background and geography are other areas that are already examined before acceptance letters are mailed.

Grades alone should not be the sole point of admission - although race should not bear the weight by itself either.

Many different characteristics of a person should be measured when considering an applicant for any institution, to give reviewers the whole picture.

The students who complained that admissions policy was, in effect, discrimination, should realize that the inclusion of race was not to be a deciding factor, but merely another facet to examine.

Overall qualifications were and are an important aspect of any admissions process, and if these students were qualified to get into the University of Michigan as they say, then they should be qualified to get into any other equally prestigious institution.

Despite what some critics say, affirmative action is not detrimental to our society..

Rather, it helps minority students to get noticed and have a chance during a review process in which they might not otherwise be seen.

It would be a wonderful thing to see the day when we can look at a person and judge them solely on their merits, with race playing no role whatsoever.

But there is still a lot of work to do before we can eliminate the racial prerogative.

Higher education is something that everybody deserves, regardless of their race, socioeconomic background, creed, gender or sexual orientation.

The federal court’s decision on U-M’s policies are a leap forward in cementing this for our society, and should the Supreme Court hold a hearing on the issue, we can only hope that it will work to create a national standard which we can all enjoy.