Archived Document
U-M response to White House announcement on affirmative action,
January 15, 2003
Why Michigan's Former Admissions Systems Comply with Bakke and
Are Not Quotas
Revised February 21, 2003
- Every application is reviewed individually, and admissions counselors
look at the whole person in that review. The University considers each
student's academic strength, personal achievement, and life experiences,
among many other factors.
- Academic qualifications---including grades, test scores, and strength
of curriculum---are by far the overwhelming criteria in making
admissions decisions.
- There are no separate tracks or set-asides. There are no numerically
specified or minimum targets. Every applicant competes against the
entire class.
- Race is only one of the many factors considered in the admissions
process. Every year some white students are admitted with lower test
scores and lower GPAs than some minority students who are
rejected---reflecting the consideration of many other factors in this
individualized review.
- More than 25,000 applications are received each year for about 5,000
spaces in the University of Michigan's freshman class, and more than
5,000 applications are received each year for about 350 spaces in the
U-M Law School. The University chooses from among these highly
qualified applicants those students who will make the greatest
contribution to the class as a whole.
- In the undergraduate admissions system, a 150-point Selection Index
is used as a tool to help counselors consistently assess the large pool
of applicants each year. Fully 110 points are awarded for academic
factors. While students who are underrepresented minorities can earn 20
points in this system, the same 20 points can be earned by those who are
socioeconomically disadvantaged or who attend a high school that serves
a predominately minority population, regardless of the student's race
(however, the 20 points can only be awarded once). Geographic diversity
is important, and students from Michigan's largely white Upper Peninsula
earn 16 points. Men applying to Nursing and women applying to
Engineering also receive special consideration.
- Undergraduate admissions counselors review each file individually,
but the Selection Index helps them evaluate the thousands of
applications that are submitted. Counselors often bring individual
applications before a review committee for further discussion and
consideration. Taken as a whole, the Selection Index works very well in
choosing a student body that is academically excellent and diverse in
many ways.
- The University does seek to enroll a "critical mass" of students from
underrepresented minority groups in order to achieve the educational
benefits of diversity. More than token numbers of minority students are
needed in order to ensure that students will have significant
opportunities to interact with one another. It is from these
interactions that the educational benefits result. A critical mass of
students of a particular race allows all students to see differences
within racial groups, and commonalities across racial lines. Critical
mass is an educational concept---not a fixed number or target.
- The concept of a critical mass is consistent with the Supreme Court's
guidance in the 1978 Bakke decision. As Justice Powell noted in that
case, "some attention must be paid to the numbers" to achieve the
educational benefits of diversity. By having the educational goal of
"critical mass" in mind, our programs also satisfy the legal requirement
that a program be "narrowly tailored" to meet the compelling interest in
a diverse student body.
- The numbers of enrolled students from underrepresented minority
groups vary from year to year. For example, over the past decade, the
number of enrolled students in the Law School from underrepresented
minority groups ranged from 12.5 to 20.1%. During that same time
period the percentage of U-M law students from New York ranged from
5.5 to 9.7%, but no one would argue there is a quota for New Yorkers.
The number of enrolled students whose last name begins with the letter
"S" ranged from 9.7 to 13.8%. These groupings occur because of
characteristics of the applicant pool, not because there is any
specific, predetermined
numerical target."
- As a baseline, the University accepts only students who are
academically qualified to do the work. Indeed, the alternatives
suggested by the Bush administration (such as the percentage plans in
California and Texas) operate more like set-asides for highly segregated
school districts, and fail to guarantee that all admitted students are
qualified to do the work.
- Michigan's current policies have been upheld as being consistent with
Bakke. In the Law School case, for example, the Sixth Circuit
explicitly rejected the plaintiffs' contention that its system was the
"functional equivalent of a quota." The Sixth Circuit found the Law
School's admissions program is "virtually indistinguishable" from the
Harvard Plan, which Justice Powell held out in the Bakke decision as an
appropriate model. Similarly, the District Court judge in the
undergraduate case concluded that the current admissions program "meets
the requirements set forth by Justice Powell in Bakke and is therefore
constitutional."
Revised February 21, 2003
Return to top
Archived Documents Index
|