A conservative public-policy firm placed full-page advertisements in approximately a dozen campus newspapers across the country, including The Dartmouth, yesterday with the headline "Guilty By Admission" accusing "nearly every elite college in America" of violating affirmative action laws when making admissions decisions.
The ad, placed by the Washington-based Center for Individual Rights, urges students to download or send away for a free handbook on how to investigate their colleges' adherence to laws on race and admissions. The handbook also details what students can do if their institutions are in violation of those laws.
The new ad campaign specifically targets 15 high-profile colleges, including three Ivy League schools -- Dartmouth, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.
According to the center's Senior Counsel Terence Pell, CIR targeted these particular schools because, according to a study conducted by the Center for Equal Opportunity, race plays a larger role in admissions selection at more competitive institutions.
Pell said that the colleges chosen for ad placement were selected to represent a variety of institutions, and that Dartmouth was not chosen for any specific reason. He said Dartmouth's selection does not necessarily mean that CIR is accusing the College of having illegal admissions policies.
College President James Wright defended Dartmouth's admissions policy, asserting that any accusation that the College is in violation of racial preference laws would be "incorrect."
"We're not in violation of any law and we are going to continue at Dartmouth to admit a rich and diverse student body," Wright said. "I'm not at all uncomfortable with the process we use in admitting students."
Wright emphasized that Dartmouth has been striving to admit a diverse student body since it was established.
"Dartmouth has made it clear for a very long time that diversity and affirmative action are very important here. It has been an ongoing commitment," Wright said.
The CIR handbook outlines the main court decisions and laws regarding affirmative action admissions procedures.
Most of the center's assertions that affirmative action policies are illegal center around the Fourteenth Amendment, which affords all people equal protection under the law.
The main court case involved is the 1978 Supreme Court decision of University of California Regents v. Bakke, where the court ruled setting aside a certain number of slots for minority students was ruled unconstitutional.
Justice Lewis Powell, who wrote the deciding opinion, stated that quotas and practices that created separate procedures for admitting different races were unconstitutional, but that colleges could take race into account as one of several factors contributing to a diverse student body.
"Justice Powell ruled that while race can be used as a plus factor it could not be used as a basis for dual admissions standards," Pell said.
In addition, the handbook also cites Title VI, a law which prohibits any institution receiving federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race.
Pell said the center is beginning their campaign now because using race as a factor in college and professional school admissions has been gaining wider acceptance in the past year, especially among affirmative action supporters.
He said that now is a good time to act in order to counteract the arguments that support race-based admissions policies.
"We think that almost every elite school is in violation of the law," Pell said. "Schools should not wait until the next big Supreme Court decision to change that."
Pell said the purpose of the campaign was not to lead to more litigation, but to make people aware of issues that can be resolved without lawsuits. However, he did emphasize that trustees of institutions can be held legally responsible for their roles in discrimination.
"We hope that reasonable people can fix some of the egregious problems without further litigation, but if litigation seems necessary, we'll certainly consider that," Pell said.
The campaign was announced yesterday at a Washington news conference.
Other than the three Ivy League institutions, these 12 colleges and universities are being targeted by the campaign: the University of Chicago, Duke University, James Madison University, University of North Carolina, University of Pittsburgh, Rutgers University, Stanford, University of Virginia, Wake Forest University, George Washington University, Washington University in St. Louis and the College of William and Mary.
