Fearing legal repercussions for using explicitly race-based criteria to determine entrance to summer programs, Princeton and MIT recently announced plans to open the programs up to other groups besides minority students. Dartmouth is currently reviewing a similar program run through the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, but has yet to take any decisive action.
The concern at Dartmouth and Princeton stems from two Supreme Court cases brought against the University of Michigan that attack a point-based admissions system that awards students an automatic bonus for minority status.
MIT is responding to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The investigation was prompted by complaints filed two years ago by two conservative groups that argued MIT's program illegally excluded whites.
Representatives from Princeton and MIT say the institutions still support the programs' original aims but that fears of lawsuits have forced them to revamp their admissions criteria.
The Princeton program, which has run for 18 years as the Junior Summer Institute at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, was intended to interest students of color in pursuing graduate studies and careers in international and public policy. Until now, only non-white students completing their junior year of college were eligible for the seven-week program.
"What we were doing was saying that you had to be a student of color--we weren't taking other factors into consideration," Vice President of Public Affairs Bob Durkee said. "One of the questions was whether we could continue to defend the program in court and the legal advice was that we couldn't."
One of MIT's two contested programs is designed to prepare entering minority freshman academically for the coming year, while the university's Minority Introduction to Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Science aims to encourage minority high school students to pursue studies in science and technology.
"We got too good at what we were doing," Office of Minority Education Director Leo Osgood said of MITES. "The complaint was lodged that we were excluding some students who could benefit from it."
At Princeton, the Junior Summer Institute will run as planned this summer, giving administrators and legal counsel time to brainstorm legally acceptable alternatives.
The school's two major options are continuing with the same program but opening it up to other applicants, or replacing it with a different program altogether but making an active effort to recruit minorities, Durkee said.
Dartmouth's Tuck School runs a minority-targeted summer program for high-school juniors that is currently under review.
The program is part of a two-decade-old nationwide program called Leadership Education and Development that provides summer business opportunities for minority students.
However, the College is not taking any drastic action one way or the other until the legal ramifications become clearer.
"We will be reviewing the MIT and Princeton cases," Dartmouth General Counsel Bob Donin said. "We also hope to obtain further guidance from the Supreme Court's decision this spring in the Michigan admissions cases."
