Following a spate of defeats for affirmative-action policies on college campuses nationwide, university officials in Illinois now find themselves the target of a conservative research group that has been successful in some of those high-profile campaigns to end race-based admissions.
At more than a half dozen public universities, including the flagship University of Illinois, admission policies have been the focus of a survey by the Washington-based Center for Equal Opportunity.
The center has been a player in successful efforts to end affirmative action in California and Washington; its research also has been used recently to back claims of reverse discrimination at the University of Michigan, where officials are fighting lawsuits at the undergraduate level and law schools.
The research is alleged to show that public universities have higher acceptance rates for minority students than for whites with similar grades and standardized test scores. The group recently filed a series of freedom of information requests at Illinois public universities–with the help of DePaul University finance professor John Mathys–seeking wide-ranging admissions data regarding race and gender, setting the stage for an opposition effort here.
Meanwhile, the University of Chicago Law School also has been the subject of a wide-ranging inquiry. The U.S. Department of Education, according to spokesman Rodger Murphey, has been gathering data and field interviews based on a 2-year-old complaint filed by a white male applicant who was denied admission to the U. of C. Law School. That investigation is nearly complete.
In a letter submitted on behalf of the student, a law firm said the applicant had been “unlawfully deprived of the opportunity to compete for each and every admission slot in the (law school) class.” U. of C. Law School Dean Daniel Fischel responded to the federal agency’s investigation recently in a written statement, saying, “We believe our admission policies are both educationally and legally sound.”
Public university officials across the state also have defended their admissions policies, which under the 1978 landmark Bakke ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court allowed race to be used as a “plus” factor in admissions to promote diversity. But sentiment about affirmative action on campuses is continuing to evolve.
“Every university in the United States is examining these issues,” said James Stukel, president of the University of Illinois system. “This issue is constantly discussed and debated.”
The debate centers on whether universities can equate promoting diversity with considering the race of an applicant. Critics say “diversity” should be defined not by race but by other factors such as background, life experiences, the region of the world where an applicant grew up or a unique professional bent or talent.
Lance Izumi, a senior research fellow who worked on California’s ballot initiative, said affirmative action has been defeated in several states, including California’s, in large part because statistics like those uncovered by the Center for Equal Opportunity illuminated flaws in the admissions system.
“Here in California, once people heard about the actual numbers, problems in the admissions system could not be denied,” said Izumi, who works as a senior fellow with the Pacific Research Institute, a conservative public policy think tank.
Just on Friday, the University of California Regents approved a plan that would guarantee admission to all California high school graduates who finish in the top 4 percent of their classes.
Although there have been no major changes to admissions policies yet at Illinois universities, a recent presidential retreat at the U. of I. focused on affirmative action and included a presentation by a noted Texas law professor about the 1996 Hopwood case in Texas, which ended race-conscious admissions there.
A conference at the University of Illinois at Chicago also will focus on the future of affirmative action in higher education, officials said.
Admissions procedures likewise have been under review at Southern Illinois University and Northern Illinois University, two other public universities that received survey requests to be forwarded to the Center for Equal Opportunity.
President Stukel said he is confident about the U. of I. policies but added, “Whenever we get a request for information like that (one), it obviously piques our attention. You wonder what they are looking for.”
In the Bakke case, Allan Bakke, a white man, sued the University of California-Davis Medical School when he was denied admission while less qualified minority applicants were admitted. The court found that race-conscious policies are acceptable as long as race is not the only admissions criteria.
But the Hopwood ruling declared that the state could not use race as a factor in admissions at all. The ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also transformed admissions policies in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Illinois universities support a variety of scholarship and support programs that aid minority students. Those programs, some of which are open to all students but target minorities, cost taxpayers about $96 million, according to the most recent survey conducted by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
Though the Center for Equal Opportunity is not involved in litigation, the group wants to force colleges and universities that are using race as a factor in admissions to admit it and defend their policies, said Roger Clegg, the center’s general counsel.
Mathys, the DePaul finance professor who helped the Center for Equal Opportunity with its data requests, believes that widespread opposition eventually will leave universities with little choice.
“If you start breaking down society by oppressed groups, every group was discriminated against in our history one way or another,” Mathys said. “Those games make fascinating arguments, but to use them to justify preferences today . . . you are playing with dynamite.”
One safeguard for affirmative action programs at Illinois universities is state law. A citizens’ ballot initiative to end affirmative action such as one recently proposed in Michigan–and which toppled policies in California and Washington–would be unlikely here.
The Illinois Constitution limits citizen initiatives to issues dealing with the narrow field of “structural and procedural subjects,” such as the number of seats in the General Assembly.
Still, the actions of lawmakers are a different issue. Sen. Walter Dudycz (R-Chicago), who in 1995 sponsored an ill-fated proposal to ban racial preferences, said he also would be interested in seeing a report by the center.
“If it can be proven to me that the assumptions or the accusations of unfair practices are going on out there, I will vigorously pursue legislation to stop this unfair practice,” Dudycz said.
At the same time, Sen. Donne Trotter, (D-Chicago), chairman of the Joint Legislative Black Caucus, which includes 26 black and Latino House and Senate lawmakers, said: “I’m not paranoid that anything is going to happen negatively any time soon. I just haven’t felt that kind of pressure on the system.”
Meanwhile, university officials stress that race is less and less a factor in college admissions. Opponents say the statements are more public relations than reality, while supporters say universities are making an unwarranted retreat.
“I have to be very careful about what I say about these issues,” said Marilyn Fiduccia, executive director of admissions and records at UIC. She first said that race is not a factor in undergraduate admissions, but later said race is a factor but only on a very limited basis.
“Everyone is afraid of being sued by some right-wing conservative group,” she said.
