Though the University of Michigan’s law school won an affirmative action case in appeals court earlier this week allowing them to continue using race as a factor in its admissions policy, officials at Northwestern said they largely weren’t affected by the decision.
Rebecca Dixon, NU associate provost for university enrollment, said while NU is “not immune” to the effects of affirmative action suits against other universities, it is impossible to predict the exact effect a ruling would have.
Followers of Michigan’s case predict it will be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court by the primary plaintiff, a woman who says Michigan’s law school rejected her because she is white. A case against the university’s undergraduate affirmative action program, which was filed with the case against the law school, still is pending in the Sixth Appellate District.
A lower court decision against Michigan’s undergraduate affirmative action program would have no effect on NU because the two schools are in two different districts. But if either case is taken to the Supreme Court, as is expected with the law school case, NU might be subject to the fallout from the decision.
Officials predict that any decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court would be close, as the court has made several anti-affirmative action decisions regarding hiring practices recently.
Dixon said NU would watch carefully any case brought to the Supreme Court, but with little concern.
“We’d be just as interested, but we wouldn’t do anything differently,” Dixon said.
Dixon said ethnicity is one of about 15 factors NU considers when evaluating applicants.
“It’s not a dominant one,” she said.
Previous cases on affirmative action in public universities have forced some private universities to change their admissions policies. All universities that receive federal funding must provide non-discriminatory educational opportunities.
NU received about $204 million in federal research grants for fiscal 2001, said Charles Loebbaka, director of media relations.
Rice University in Houston switched to race-blind admissions and financial aid selections in 1996 following a rule that forbade the Texas university from using race as an admissions factor.
Rice’s minority numbers “dramatically” dropped from 12 percent Latino and 7 percent black in 1996’s incoming freshman class to 8 percent Latino and 4 percent black the following year, said Ann Wright, vice president for enrollment at Rice.
The decision also prevented the university from using race in awarding financial aid packages and giving minority students more grants than loans, Wright said.
“It’s a real challenge because if you can’t take into account special backgrounds and special financial needs, we are competing with schools that are not restrained in the same way,” Wright said.
A reorganization of Rice’s admissions office helped the university expand its minority recruitment nationwide, and the school’s minority numbers were on the rise by 1999, Wright said.
While students were disappointed in the drop in minority student numbers, they used their frustration to help with recruiting efforts, Wright said.
She expected Rice’s rejuvenated numbers to increase over time.
“The real growth is in the Hispanic area, and I would expect greater increase there than for other groups,” she said. “All these programs we have in place will continue to raise those numbers at least marginally.”
Affirmative action alone will not help NU get a diverse class, said Mike Blake, For Members Only coordinator.
Blake said that funneling more money into the ambassadors’ program, which NU uses to recruit incoming black students, and an existing African-American outreach program through the admissions office would help the effort.
“The university seems very vague to me at this point as to what its standpoint on minority recruitment is,” said Blake, a Medill sophomore.
“They have a Chicago initiative to bring more minorities from the Chicago area,” Blake said. “It makes no sense why you have a Midwest initiative when most minority students are not from the Midwest. Have an East Coast initiative, or a West Coast initiative, or a South initiative.”
