Sylvia shaw had encountered plenty of obstacles on the road to medical school. But when she arrived for the first day of classes at the University of California, Davis, in the fall of 1978, she found one more: a throng of protesters and camera crews. They were there to mark the arrival of her famous classmate, Allan Bakke, a white student who'd sued for reverse discrimination after he was twice rejected―and got in only after his case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Bakke had complained about students like Shaw, an African-American who was accepted under a special-quota program. Now a Los Angeles endocrinologist, Shaw still favors giving the disadvantaged a boost. But she has also come to agree with many Americans that the current system has problems. "It probably needs to be around in some other form that's not so politically charged," she says. "It needs to be redesigned."
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