The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to consider the affirmative action admissions policies at the University of Michigan could seriously impact many universities’ ability to consider race when admitting students. But University of Oregon officials say any decision would probably have less impact here.
The current debate over the future of affirmative action stems from the lawsuits of three white students against the University of Michigan. The students claim that less qualified minority candidates were admitted instead because of the university’s admissions policy that awards points based on a number of factors, including race.
President George W. Bush has further spurred the recent controversy by taking a firm stance against considering race as the driving force in university admissions. In a nationally televised address, the president denounced the University of Michigan’s policies and said they amounted “to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes prospective students based solely on their race.”
Nicolas Centino, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Student of Color Campus Diversity Project, said that in the battle over affirmative action, opponents have boiled down the controversy to a race issue. Centino argued, however, that affirmative action aims to ensure equal access to all historically disadvantaged people, and as a result, creates opportunities for women, Latinos, Asian Americans, people with disabilities and other groups that have encountered societal barriers in receiving a higher education.
Affirmative action policies in college admissions have come under fire numerous times over the years, but they continue to remain a part of many college admissions programs because of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the 1978 case Bakke v. University of California Regents. In this decision, the court upheld the use of race as one of many factors in the admissions process. Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote that using race-sensitive policies to attain a diverse student body “is a constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education.” However, the court established the use of racial quotas as illegal.
University Assistant Director of Admissions Tomas Hulick said the two University of Michigan cases are significant to advocates on both sides of the issue because the Supreme Court may clearly define its position on affirmative action this year. Hulick said policy makers have encountered difficulties in structuring affirmative action programs because of the vagueness of the Bakke decision.
“(Bakke) didn’t establish a solid foundation that would dictate how affirmative action would be implemented,” he said. “Most observers I’ve read and spoken with expect that the Supreme Court will issue a much clearer and stronger decision this time around.”
Hulick said it is difficult to determine how the two cases will ultimately affect college affirmative action programs across the nation because universities do not all share the same admissions process. He added that some will be significantly impacted while other institutions will hardly change.
Human Rights Investigator Sid Moore said whatever decision the Supreme Court makes, he doubts it will affect admissions policies at the University. He added that the University of Oregon differs from the University of Michigan in that it doesn’t turn away any qualified applicants and sidesteps the question of how to narrow down a larger pool of qualified applicants. Moore said the University engages in efforts to help underrepresented groups attend the University, without having to exclude other potentially qualified candidates.
“We are trying to provide opportunities for higher education to students who’ve historically had significant barriers societally in getting into college,” Moore said. “The program that we have is not race based. It’s based on privilege and the lack of privilege.”
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