When the United States Supreme Court rules this summer in a pair of cases filed against the University of Michigan, the verdict will likely be the most important decision on affirmative action in the last 25 years. Yet when the Court heard oral arguments last week, and thousands of students at universities across the country gathered to protest in support of Michigan, few students at Dartmouth took much notice.
Here's why you should care.
Michigan's assignment of a point value based on the color of undergraduate applicants' skin -- African-American, Hispanic and Native American applicants automatically receive 20 points on a 150 point scale -- is fundamentally unappealing and calls into question the core goals of the Civil Rights movement. However, for massive public universities that want to provide opportunities for minorities while offering a top quality education, it's also the best option currently available.
Race-neutral "percentage plans," which guarantee admission to a state's university system to all students within a certain percentage of the top of their high school class, simply don't work. Recent reports released by The Civil Rights Project of Harvard University and the New York-based Mellon Foundation found that programs instituted after the abolishment of affirmative action in California, Florida and Texas have failed consistently to keep racial diversity near prior levels. As the Harvard study concluded, "relative to the current college-age population in each of these states, none of these campuses reflects the students they are intended to serve."
Dartmouth doesn't need a point-system -- elite private schools have tremendous resources available in their admissions office to consider at length the individual merits of applicants. As a public institution over 24,000 undergraduates strong, Michigan doesn't have that luxury.
More is at risk here than Michigan's particular system. At hearings last week, the Court appeared inclined to preserve the use of race as a "plus factor" in admissions, but a ruling to the contrary would have repercussions felt across our nation's colleges. That's why Dartmouth joined scores of other universities and corporations in filing a friend of the court brief in Michigan's favor.
The Supreme Court must rule in Michigan's favor. Any other move would hinder minorities' access to higher education -- the result of which would diminish the experience of all students.
