Affirmative action admissions on trial again

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether race can be taken into consideration in college admissions, a controversial subject the court last ruled on nearly a quarter of a century ago.\nAlthough IU officials say they do not consider race in the application process, the issue is still debated heavily on campus. \nThe question the Supreme Court will consider is whether it is constitutional for the University of Michigan to accept minority students with lower grades and test scores than white applicants.\nMany have attacked Michigan for awarding 20 points for students of color on the college application while only giving three points for the quality of the college essay.\nRecently, these attacks have come in the form of two lawsuits. The first one involves Barbara Grutter, a businesswoman who was denied admission to the Michigan law school in 1996 when she was 43. She said minority applicants received preferential treatment. \nIn the other case, two undergraduates, Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher argue they also were denied admission because of race.\nThe court last addressed this issue in the Bakke case of 1978, in which the Supreme Court outlawed racial quotas, but one justice wrote in his opinion that race may be factored into admissions.\nOpponents contend that race-conscious policies hurt white college applicants. Also, when held to a lower standard than other students, many say minorities are not prepared for the rigorous class work.\n"They're also unfair to minorities who are stigmatized and held to a demeaningly lower standard," Curt Levey told the Associated Press. Levey, a lawyer with the Washington-based Center for Individual Rights, is representing white students in the challenge.\nOn the other side, many administrators at IU support Michigan's policy.\nIU vice president of student development and diversity Charlie Nelms said he supports factoring race into applications.\n"Clearly, I feel that race should be a factor to take into consideration," Nelms said. "Race has and continues to be a deterrant, despite all the rhetoric about America being colorblind, this is not the case."\nIU director of diversity education Mark Bryson echoed these sentiments, but said race is only one thing that should be considered in a student's application. He said economic factors play a role as well. He said affirmative action gives students from different backgrounds an equal opportunity. \n"If someone works three jobs to get by, it's harder for them to find time to study," Bryson said. "They need to go beyond SATs and GPA records because they are not the only indicators of a students success."\nNelms said another reason why race should be considered is because he feels diversity on campus is essential to a good education.\n"All of the research I have ever looked at say that diversity is essential to academic excellence and social justice," Nelms said. "It allows students to look at other points of view from students from other backgrounds."\nProfessors also prefer diversity, Nelms said.\n"As a teacher, I know that diversity increases the quality of the discussion in the classroom," Nelms said.\nBryson agreed with Nelms, noting that many corporations submitted statements backing Michigan up in their policy.\n"If you read any of the amicus briefs from any of the Fortune 500 companies such Coca-Cola and Microsoft, who supported Michigan, you'll see they prefer employing students who come from diverse backgrounds," Bryson said.\nAffirmative action and racial consideration have received a negative and incorrect perception, Bryson said. He cited that even in the 1980s, many blacks were restricted to mostly inner-city homes through neighborhood associations, and their poorer community did not breed a better education.\n"If black people lived in certain neighborhoods, they believed it would reduce property value," Bryson said. "As a result, they were far beyond the eight-ball. They look at affirmative action being a result of the vestiges of slavery, but we can see there are many things in our lifetime that factor in as well."\nNelms agreed, saying improving high schools which are primarily black or hispanic is the first step to increasing diversity at universities.\n"We have to do a better job seeing that young people receive the quality education they deserve," Nelms said. "The quality of high school education in schools that are mostly hispanic or black is seriously less than schools which have a white majority. We need to make sure these students are prepared at the K through 12 levels before they enter college."\nMichigan told the court, that without considering race, minority attendance in freshman classes could drop to .04 percent. \nIf the Supreme Court decides to disallow racial consideration, many feel it will negatively impact not only Michigan, but colleges across the country. \nMichigan President Mary Sue Coleman said the outcome "will have a profound impact on our nation's higher education system and on our race relations broadly... Now is not the time to turn back the clock."\nThe Associated Press contributed to this story.