By George E. Curry
Editor-in-Chief, George Curry Media
WASHINGTON – If you want to know what the University of Texas student body would look like if the Supreme Court invalidates the institution’s affirmative action admissions program now under judicial review, look no farther than Michigan and California.
Both states filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the Fisher v. University of Texas-Austin warning that if the university is prohibited from considering race among seven factors it now uses to evaluate a portion of its freshman class, race-neutral efforts will not compensate for the loss of students of color normally admitted under affirmative action.
Both California and Michigan passed amendments to their state constitutions banning the consideration of race in public employment, government contracting and higher education. Ward Connerly, a Black conservative whose company received $ 1 million in a set-aside contract from the state of California, was the public face for each ballot referendum.
There were 39 graduate and undergraduate California student organizations that filed jointly to warn of the dangers of eliminating the consideration of race and ethnicity in university admission.
Among the groups were the Black Law Students Association at UCLA, Asian American Law Students Association at the University of California-Berkeley, La Raza Law Students Association at UC Hastings College of Law, the Chinese American Law Association at UC Hastings College of Law and the Women’s Law Society at UC-Irvine.
“California’s experience under Proposition 209 is representative of the negative consequences of adopting an admissions policy in which some aspects of diversity, particularly race and ethnicity, are ignored,” the groups said in their brief. “…Far from demonstrating that the time has come for the already limited consideration of race in the admissions process to be wholly abandoned, Proposition 209 has vindicated the reasoned position of Justice Powell in Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 315 (1978), affirmed by this Court in Grutter, that diversity remains an important component of the educational experience.”
It continued, “Empirical evidence shows that since its enactment, Proposition 209 has continued to undermine UC’s own constitutionally sound state interest in creating a truly diverse student body. Immediately after the Proposition’s enactment, enrollment of underrepresented minority students at UC schools plummeted. Although some schools have recovered to pre-Proposition 209 levels for enrollment of certain underrepresented minorities, they still fall far short of the ‘critical mass’ that UT seeks to achieve in this case. Moreover, top schools like Berkeley and UCLA still have not recovered to pre-Proposition 209 levels of diversity – even as the State of California becomes increasingly diverse in its general population.”
In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 109, which prohibited the consideration of race, sex and ethnicity in public employment, public contracting and higher education. Although it discontinued any consideration of race, the University of California system aggressively undertook race-neutral efforts that cost more than $100 million but never was able to make up for the drop-off in admissions.
“Proposition 209 has had the most drastic effects on the two most selective of California’s University campuses: UC Berkeley and UCLA,” according to the brief. “After the Proposition’s enactment, African American undergraduate enrollment dropped dramatically at Berkeley and UCLA among California residents, with freshman enrollment at UC Berkeley more than halving between 1997 and 1998.
“At UCLA, African American undergraduate enrollment dropped by more than 37%, from 5.6% to 3.5% of the freshman class during the same period. The proportion of African American freshman students enrolling at UCLA has still not returned to pre-Proposition 209 levels. At UC Berkeley, African American undergraduate enrollment has hovered between approximately 3% and 4% between 1998 and 2014, far below pre-Proposition 209 levels, which was approximately 6.5%.”
The decrease in students of color has led to a greater sense of isolation. Across the university system from 2008 to 2010, only 62.2 percent of Blacks and 77.2 percent of Latinos reported feeling that students of their race or ethnicity are respected on campus. By comparison, 92.6 percent of Whites felt that way.
“The lack of adequate diversity in the UC system has diminished the educational experiences of UC students and created campuses that are less hospitable to those underrepresented minority students who do choose to enroll, while simultaneously greatly narrowing their paths to leadership roles.” the brief stated. “Moreover, many highly qualified minority students who are admitted to UC’s elite schools spurn these offers in favor of private universities with much more diverse student bodies. The resulting “brain drain” harms not just Amici and other UC students, but also the State as a whole.
“These negative effects have occurred despite a wide array of race-neutral efforts by UC administrators to maintain diversity – many of which mirror UT’s failed approaches prior to the adoption of its current holistic review. UC’s race neutral alternatives have not and cannot fully counteract the devastating effects of Proposition 209.”
The University of Michigan reported similar results.
In its brief, it recounted, “In 2006 – the last admissions year before Proposal 2 took effect – underrepresented minorities made up 12.9% of undergraduates, 13.8% of the professional school population, and 13.14% of the University’s total enrollment.
“The 2014 enrollment figures reflect a downward long-term trend: underrepresented minorities made up only 10.67% of undergraduates, 12.22% of professional students, and 11.52% of the University’s total student body.”
The figures are even worse for African Americans. “Black undergraduate enrollment was 7.03% in 2006; for the past five years it has ranged between 4.41% and 4.71%, a reduction of more than one-third. This decrease occurred even as the total percentage of college-aged blacks in Michigan increased from 16 to 19%.”
Like California, the University of Michigan aggressively sought out race-neutral approaches to increase the number of students of color.
“Despite persistent and varied efforts to increase student-body racial and ethnic diversity by race-neutral means, admission and enrollment of underrepresented minority students
have fallen precipitously in many of U-M’s schools and colleges since Proposal 2 was enacted, the university said in its brief. “U-M’s experience underscores that the limited consideration of race is necessary to obtain the educational benefits of racial diversity.”
