The University of Michigan released a new undergraduate admission process Thursday, dropping a point system the U.S. Supreme Court found unconstitutional in June.\nThe university's new policy takes race into account as a part of a 'holistic' application process. New criteria will include a student's intellectual interests, meaningful extracurricular activities and possibly household income.\nIU Black Student Union president Crystal Brown said she believes Michigan's admission process isn't necessarily a step backward for affirmative action.\n"I think it's enough, because even though they struck down the point system, they upheld a university's right to use affirmative action and take race and socioeconomic status into consideration," Brown said. "This country, particularly the court, understands that we're not on an equal playing field yet."\nThe university's new undergraduate application requires students to write three essays instead of the old application's requirement of one. It also gives applicants the option of providing information regarding their race as opposed to requiring it.\nThe U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the university's previous undergraduate point-based admissions system, which awarded more points for minorities than for some academic factors, was unconstitutional. The decision was based on the precedent set by the 1976 case California Board of Regents v. Bakke.\nUniversity of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman said in a statement on the university's Web site, "Our fundamental values haven't changed. We believe that in order to create a dynamic learning environment for all our students, we must bring together students who are highly qualified academically and who represent a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. As a public university, we also have an important and distinctive role to provide access to students from all walks of life."\nKeon Gilbert, a member of the Diversity Education Committee at IU, helped create the video about the controversial Thomas Hart Benton murals inside Woodburn Hall. Gilbert, like Brown, said he believes that UM's decision to change its admissions policy was a response to society's negative reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. \n"I think it's more of a response from the backlash since the Supreme Court decision," Gilbert said. "It seems the University of Michigan is going to stay committed to economic as well as racial and ethnic diversity. They're just going about it in a different way. As different forms of racism take place and different forms of discrimination exist, we're going to need new tools to combat these new forms of inequality."\nCommUNITY educator Carolyn Randolph said she believes the university's announcement couldn't have come at a worse time than on the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.\n"This sounds like a slap in the face. I do think it's very political, and," she said, "it's a way of saying they don't respect that there are still issues of racism."\nThe announcement also coincided with IU's CultureFest -- an annual celebration of campus diversity, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech was also commemorated.
-- Contact staff writer Kehla West at krwest@indiana.edu.
