Sorry, Wrong Numbers - surveys on affirmative action - Brief Article - Polling Data - Statistical Data Included

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 11, 2000 by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

Critical scholars reject recent affirmative action studies as having biased questions and implementing poor practices.

NEW YORK -- Civil rights leaders, cholars and others are dismissing he validity of new surveys sponsored by anti-affirmative action groups. The surveys' results indicate that faculty and students oppose racial hiring and admissions preferences as strategies for bringing diversity to campuses.

In the midst of a backlash in several states against race-based admissions initiatives designed to give more students of color a shot at higher education, the surveys are sure to inflame the debate. But critics say they are poorly designed, oversimplify a complex issue and use code words to prompt certain responses.

"It is clear that they asked very loaded questions," says Dr. Michael A. Olivas, a professor of law and the director of the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance at the University of Houston Law Center. "When the questions say, 'should fairness be considered or should racial preferences be a factor in admissions?' That is a poorly phrased question."

Olivas is referring to a poll, released here last month by the Foundation for Academic Standards & Tradition, or FAST, that found while students say they believe their campus should have a diverse student body, they oppose the use of preferences in the student-selection process. The foundation is a nonprofit student advocacy organization.

"Students say it is important to add diversity to their campus, but not at their expense," says Olivas, who adds that some carefully worded follow-up questions would have clarified the seemingly contradictory responses.

The telephone survey of more than 1,000 students from around the nation, interviewed randomly by polling firm Zogby International, asked 56 questions on a variety of issues concerning academic life, including more than a half-dozen on diversity and admissions.

The survey found that some 30 percent of students believe that racial and ethnic diversity of the student body is very important, while another 55 percent say it is somewhat important. When asked whether fairness in meeting academic standards or achieving ethnic diversity is more important in admissions decisions, more than 8 in 10 students say fairness should be the top priority.

It is precisely that type of question, Olivas says, that skews the responses.

"If diversity meant unfairness, I guess I wouldn't want it either," he says.

Dr. Daryl Smith, a professor of higher education at Claremont Graduate University, cautions that "depending on how you ask a certain question, you get a certain answer.

"Preferences and affirmative action are very loaded terms," adds Smith, who tracks studies on affirmative action. "Finding out what people think is a very difficult thing to get at in a survey."

But the foundation's president, Dr. Marc Berley, says the survey "asked questions that institutions of higher learning have been avoiding. We believe this survey will help colleges and universities focus on areas where they need to improve."

White students accounted for 81.4 percent of the survey's respondents while Black and Latino students together comprised 8.7 percent.

The report has plenty of company. In a recent survey by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, half of all college freshmen polled say they oppose affirmative action.

And, last month, a Connecticut survey concluded that faculty in the state's university system also oppose preferences in hiring and admissions. Sponsored by Jay Bergman, a history professor at Central Connecticut State University and president of the Connecticut Association of Scholars, the survey was intended to prompt state lawmakers to initiate legislation similar to California's Proposition 209, the Hartford Courant reported.

Professors at Connecticut State University's four campuses oppose hiring preferences three to one, according to the survey, while five of six instructors at the state's two-year colleges say they oppose such hiring practices.

But several scholars at the University of Connecticut attacked the survey, saying the poll was biased and that the questions on race oversimplified a complex issue. Surveys by other affiliates of the National Association of Scholars--which describes itself as an organization of professors, graduate students and college administrators committed to rational discourse, rigorous standards in teaching and research and academic freedom -- had similar conclusions.

"Again, it's very important how these kinds of things are worded," says Smith. "We saw that with the vote in California and Washington." Affirmative action plans have come under attack in California, Texas, Washington, Florida and other states in recent years. Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was the target of protests and sit-ins for his One Florida plan. The plan, which would have banned race-based admissions at state institutions, drew the largest student protests in the state's history.