UC regent suggests hiding applicant names

By Chris Metinko
Daily Staff Reporter

A proposal at the University of California would hide college applicants' names in favor of identifying them by their Social Security number.

But officials said the University of Michigan doesn't plan to follow California's lead.

The proposed change, offered by University of California Regent Ward Connerly, hopes to conceal all clues of applicants' gender, ethnic and racial background.

However, applicants to the University of Michigan shouldn't expect their application to be nameless.

"There are no plans to change our applications," said University spokesperson Julie Peterson.

The involvement of race, gender and ethnic background in considering admissions to public universities has been a hot topic in recent months.

On April 8, a federal appeals court upheld California's Proposition 209, which allows voters to eliminate affirmative action policies in admissions decisions.

Last year, the University of Texas lost in the federal court ruling of Hopwood v. Texas, which declared their affirmative action policies were unconstitutional for a public university. Nevertheless, the University of Texas was warned by the U.S. Board of Education that it would lose funding if it discontinued race-based admissions policies.

Peterson said the University of Michigan does not consider racial or ethnic background in admissions, but does "look for a very diverse (student) body."

The University did, however, decide last month to extend the deadline for minority applications and students with exceptional academic backgrounds by an extra month and actively encouraged students in the two groups to apply.

09-03-97