Study finds racial preferences

The Center for Equal Opportunity, a Washington D.C.-based think-tank, published a report on the use of race as a factor in admissions procedures at Michigan public colleges and higher education institutions, stating that the University uses racial criteria more than any other state school.

"This is a project we started working on over two years ago," said Jorge Amselle, communications director for CEO. "We're trying to find out if there are racial preferences in public education, and how great are these racial preferences?"

The center has conducted similar studies in California and is currently doing research in North Carolina, Virginia and Washington.

JOHN KRAFT/Daily Provost Nancy Cantor speaks to members of the press yesterday about the University's admissions policies.

The report includes admissions data from eight of Michigan's public universities, including the University's Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses and Michigan State University. The study reported the tests scores, grade-point average, race, gender and high school rank or applicants.

"We're only trying to look at things we can measure," Amselle said in regard to the information included in the report.

But University officials said they do not agree with the conclusions CEO drew from the report, stating that without race as a factor in admissions, black enrollment would fall significantly, but higher education would remain integrated.

"There may be somewhat fewer minorities admitted, but it would not segregate the schools," Amselle said.

Provost Nancy Cantor said that in order to address the report, University officials would be forced to assume CEO's "narrowed view of university admissions."

"I think this is, in many respects far from the unbiased report it claims to be," Cantor said at a press conference yesterday. "We do not judge the content or the character of our students in a single test."

But Cantor said information on graduation rates of minority students in the report put the University in a positive light.

"The University of Michigan is graduating minority students at a vastly greater rate than (another University) that supposedly shows no racial preference," Cantor said. "This report shows a shocking resolve to allow 'the only highly selective University in the state' to become a segregated institution."

Associate Provost Paul Courant said the methods used to study admissions are not appropriate because of the number of variables.

"When you model any process with numbers, the math can't be any smarter than the things that you measure and put in the computer," Courant said during the press conference. "Unless the other things can be controlled, the other things that matter aren't in there."

Courant criticized the report's controversial claim that a black student is 174.1 times as likely to be admitted as an equally qualified white peer.

"The most striking single statistic in this report is the statement that if a black and white student were competing for a spot, the black student would have a 173.7 to one (odd of being admitted)," Courant said.

Courant said the numbers are misleading because the actual odds vary by a few hundredths of a percent.

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