Anti-Affirmative Action Group Takes Exception to University of Virginia Report - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, Jan 6, 2000

RICHMOND, Va. -- When a report issued last January by an anti-affirmative action group criticized the University of Virginia's admissions policies, the school defended itself by saying the report's numbers didn't add up.

So the Center for Equal Opportunity compiled a new study addressing the criticism by accounting for the university's preference for in-state students and children of alumni.

That study, which was released last month, makes even bolder claims about the effects of the institution's policy of giving Black applicants an edge in admissions.

The report, which looks at the high school class rank and SAT scores of the class entering this fall, claims a Black applicant was 111 times as likely to be admitted as a comparably qualified White applicant. The previous study, which used only SAT scores and analyzed the class entering in 1996, said a Black applicant was 45 times as likely to be admitted.

"They made a big deal about suggesting it wasn't race, it was residency," said Roger Clegg, an attorney with the conservative think-tank. "We wanted to show that was not true. And we did."

While Virginia criticized the initial report's methodology, it did review its admissions policies and dropped a scoring system that explicitly accounted for race. A subcommittee of the school's Board of Visitors said it feared the system was illegal in light of recent court decisions.

But the school said it would continue to informally account for race in admissions.

Calling the university's response "schizophrenic," Clegg said: "If all they have done is to end the use of blatantly awarding points on the basis of race, but instead they've adopted a system of more surreptitiously considering race, it may be that there is just as much discrimination going on now as there was in the recent past."

University officials have justified using race as one factor in admissions as a way to bring diversity to the student body. They point to the school's 87 percent graduation rate for Blacks -- the highest such rate for any public university in the country -- as proof that all admitted students belong there.

The initial study claimed the university had the largest gap between Black and White applicants offered admission of any university in the state. Other public universities had smaller gaps or no gap at all. At two Virginia universities -- Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion -- Whites appeared to have a better chance of admission.

The new study only examined the University of Virginia and did not revisit data from the state's other public universities.