Federal Court Upholds Affirmative Action Admissions Policies At University Of Michigan

A federal judge in Detroit recently upheld the current affirmative action policies in the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions process, though he ruled an affirmative action plan used there from 19951998 did discriminate against Whites.

His action affirms the university's belief in the importance of a racially diverse student body to the learning process.

"A racially and ethnically diverse student body produces significant educational benefits such that diversity, in the context of higher education, constitutes a compelling governmental interest," wrote U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan in a 50-page opinion.

Commenting on the ruling, University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger said, "This is an unequivocal ruling in our favor. The court ruled that the current system for admitting students to the University of Michigan is legal, and the reasons for the consideration of race are completely justified.

"I am deeply gratified by the court's decision to recognize and affirm the critical nature of diversity in higher education ... The decision of the court today supports the admission policies of virtually every selective university in the nation. The court has followed 22 years of settled law which permits colleges and universities to pursue diversity to meet important educational aims."

The ruling is the latest court action in two 1997 lawsuits claiming the university's admissions policies unconstitutionally discriminate against Whites in favor of less-qualified minorities (JET, Nov. 6, 2000).

The two suits were brought by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights (CIR), a conservative legal group that brought down affirmative action at the University of Texas Law School in 1996.

Duggan did not hold a trial, and instead issued summary judgements. In this case, the lawsuit challenged the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science & the Arts on behalf of two White students, Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher, who unsuccessfully applied for the fall terms of 1995 and 1997 respectively.

The university revised its admission policy since the lawsuits were filed. The judge found that certain aspects of the prior policy, a system of grids which sorted applicants by many factors--including race, test scores and grades, a system of enrollment management and a system of automatic rejection were taken together as unconstitutional.

As part of its current admissions policy, the school now uses a point-scale system which takes race and other factors into consideration.

In the second lawsuit, filed on behalf of Barbara Grutter, the CIR challenges the University's use of race in its admissions at its Law School. Grutter was not accepted for the 1997 fall-entering class. The case is scheduled to go to trial later this month.

The university has spent $4.3 million defending affirmative action, saying it has a right to use race, does so fairly and legally and would lose diversity if race were ignored.

Of the University's 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students this semester, about 13% are "underrepresented minorities"-7.8% Black, 4.3% Hispanic and six-tenths of a percent American Indian.