CURRENT ISSUE :: MARCH 2004:: EDUCATION

Not Black and White

After Supreme Court Ruling, Colleges Find New Ways to Define Diversity

By Daniel Golden
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

The Supreme Court's rulings on racial preferences last summer were widely interpreted as a victory for affirmative action. A year later, the impact looks considerably more ambiguous.

In the two University of Michigan cases, the court approved of using race as one tool to achieve a diverse student body. But the court said schools can't maintain quotas or separate admissions tracks for racial groups-or define diversity solely in terms of race. Applicants must receive "truly individualized consideration," the court ruled. In other words, all aspects of a student's life should be taken into account, from race to family background to economic opportunity.

Although the decisions allowed colleges to continue considering race in choosing students, many schools have felt obliged to change how they factor race into other big academic decisions, particularly in awarding minority-only scholarships. The court didn't mention financial aid or scholarships in its decisions. But because aid is so closely linked to admissions, many schools fear that race-conscious scholarships and other programs would be interpreted by lower courts as impermissible under the standard set in the Michigan cases.

Legal Challenges

In the months since the rulings, Williams College, Indiana University, Carnegie Mellon University and other schools have opened minority scholarships to all races-even at the risk of alienating some minority students, alumni and donors. Amherst and Mount Holyoke colleges have taken the same step with campus minority-recruitment events. Among the biggest potential beneficiaries of scholarships that until now were reserved for minorities: white students with diversity credentials, such as those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds or specialize in unlikely fields.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education is investigating complaints by conservative activists and students about race-exclusive programs at several public and private universities. Among the programs are tuition waivers for native Hawaiians at the University of Hawaii and minority scholarships and job fairs at Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey.

"Minority scholarships are quite common," says Kent Syverud, dean of Vanderbilt Law School, "but that's likely to change" into scholarships where race is one factor among many.

The reduction in race-exclusive scholarships reflects a wider shift by colleges, in response to the Michigan rulings, to emphasize income and social class in admissions as well as financial aid. Both Michigan and Ohio State, for instance, have begun asking applicants whether their parents and grandparents went to college. The decline of race-exclusive scholarships is also likely to make it harder for some minority students to afford college tuitions. More may instead seek minority scholarships offered by private organizations and foundations, which aren't affected by the Michigan cases.

In general, over the past decade, minority scholarships have diminished, as colleges reacted to a growing legal threat. In 1994, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., struck down a University of Maryland scholarship program for African-Americans, saying the university failed to show the scholarships were needed to remedy past discrimination. (The decision didn't principally address the contribution of minority scholarships to a diverse student body, which many colleges now cite as a justification.) Worried by the Fourth Circuit decision and others, state universities in North Carolina, Colorado, Delaware and Florida, and elsewhere, later opened minority scholarships to all races.

Yale University's general counsel, Dorothy Robinson, says, "Schools should anticipate that there may be other legal challenges to higher-education programs and policies by opponents of affirmative action."

One powerful opponent is the Center for Equal Opportunity. Founded in 1995, the center has spearheaded the fight against race-exclusive programs in higher education. For instance, before the Michigan rulings, the center prevailed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to open minority summer-enrichment programs to all races. Since May 2002, the center has asked colleges to make 75 minority-only programs available to all races, and most have complied, says the organization's counsel, Roger Clegg.

Another current target: African-American scholarships at Washington University in St. Louis. Mr. Clegg argued in a recent complaint to the U.S. Department of Education that the university's Ervin Scholars Program, which provides full four-year tuition plus a $2,500 stipend and other academic support to 10 African-American freshmen each year, violates the "individualized consideration" required by the Michigan cases.

Washington University says the Ervin program "serves to further the compelling interest in securing for all students the educational benefits of a diverse student body." The school cites policy guidance from the Clinton administration's Education Department that financial aid based on race is justified either for diversity or to remedy the effects of past discrimination. The Bush administration hasn't issued official guidance of its own, but its strong support of race-neutral approaches to diversity in the Michigan cases suggests it may be less sympathetic to race-exclusive scholarships.

'Double Benefit'

Ervin Scholar Shaun Koiner says he has misgivings about race-exclusive scholarships. Mr. Koiner, a senior, comes from a middle-class family and went to a Catholic high school in Hyattsville, Md. With excellent grades and a 1370 SAT score, he chose Washington over Stanford, Yale, Princeton and other elite universities that didn't match the Ervin Scholars financial package.

Although the scholarships serve "a good purpose," Mr. Koiner says, "maybe more consideration needs to be given to socioeconomic class, as those minorities who have resources are receiving a double benefit." Mr. Koiner says all the Ervin Scholars are so outstanding that they would have qualified for merit aid even if the competition had been open to all.

That kind of competition is about to start at schools across the country. Indiana University, for example, recently renamed its "Minority Achievers Program" the "Hudson and Holland Scholars Program." The program, which will provide stipends of $4,000 to $7,000 a year to 150 freshmen this fall, will give an edge to minorities under-represented in higher education, but others are now eligible to apply.

"We'll still have a disproportionate number of African-Americans, Latinos and Native American students" receiving the scholarships, says Charlie Nelms, vice president for student affairs for the Indiana University system. "But you'll see Caucasian students from low-income backgrounds from rural Indiana in this program. You'll also have Asian-American first-generation college students."

Mr. Nelms says the change wasn't prompted by the Michigan decisions but by a desire to "get more high-achieving students enrolling, majority and minority."