Case information can be found online on www.umich.edu/~urel/admissions/ including a full timeline of key decisions in the cases and other affirmative action lawsuits for higher education that can be found under www.umich.edu/~urel/admissions/faqs/chronology.html because the university had to reduce the likelihood of resistance through an affirmative action program designed exclusively for African Americans. They decided to open a program in March 1964 that was open to all students. It mainly focused on those with an environment with a disadvantaged socio-economic status. The program was more concerned with the assessment of high school counsellors than with their cumulative grade point average and standardized test scores. There is also an option that allows students to conduct an interview with an admissions counselor. And once they are approved as part of the program, they receive a scholarship that covers most of their expenses. They called it the Opportunity Awards Program (OPP). “Perry`s report is more than the story of the journey of two Supreme Court cases and their aftermath. It is also the story of the profound change in the justifications for affirmative action in college and university admissions. Perry wrote an excellent addition to the Landmark Law Cases and American Society series. Few books document the context, cast and characters, issues, decisions, and importance of a high-profile Supreme Court case as this one. [an otherwise] solid and engaging account of a critical series of Supreme Court decisions. [This book] can serve as a complement to civil rights courses, as part of a legal and political class, or as an edited reading for an advanced American political seminar.
Even the expert will appreciate his unexpected material assets. In summer and autumn, a series of conferences by legal and higher education organisations are planned to analyse and explain the effects of the court decision on higher education policy at national level. OLHI`s goal was to accept more African-American students, but it was also opened to whites to protect the university from resistance. To make this happen, OLHI recruiters were sent to high schools composed mostly of African Americans. After the first year of OLHI in the fall of 1964, sixty-seven of the seventy researchers were African-American. By the end of the decade, the university had seen an increase in the African-American community from 0.5 percent to 3 percent. It was the first time so many African Americans had access to a well-known public school. In addition, another student group called “Students 4 Justice” organized a petition with 835 signatures, which was fully supported by President Schlissel, especially through university policy. Some of these demands included “the declaration of solidarity with us as black students and students of color.” Create a permanent and designated space on the central campus for black and colored students to organize and ensure social justice. This is not the same as the Trotter Multicultural Center, as we want a space dedicated exclusively to organizing communities and working for social justice specifically for people of color. [13] In response to Michigan`s affirmative action lawsuits, the University of Michigan`s Union of Black Students (BSU) launched a Twitter page to open a safe space to express their sense of racial isolation.
The Twitter hashtag #BBUM (Being Black at the University of Michigan) was launched in November following the Supreme Court`s arguments in the lawsuit regarding Michigan`s ban and the chaos that followed the racist invitation of a Michigan brotherhood via Facebook. The tweets included posts about the daily experiences of a variety of black students who attended the University of Michigan. “#BBUM don`t raise your hand in class because you don`t want to be THAT black person who just doesn`t understand… ” wrote a poster. [12] Affirmative action refers to activities or strategies aimed at ensuring equal access to opportunities for groups that are often affected by discrimination, particularly in areas such as employment and education. In the early 2000s, the use of race, gender, and other factors in decisions about college and university admissions came under attack. The University of Michigan was repeatedly sued by students who felt they were denied admission because they were white, and the idea of eliminating measures that gave preferential treatment to women, minorities and others gained momentum. In 2006, voters approved Proposition 2 — also known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative — which “amended the Michigan Constitution to prohibit public institutions from discriminating against or favoring groups or individuals in public education, public employment, or public contracts based on their race, gender, colour, ethnic origin or national origin”. As a result, the university was prohibited from considering race as part of its holistic admission process. Minority enrolment declined and the university was forced to develop alternative strategies to increase diversity among its students. Perry skillfully describes complex legal arguments and even gives an overview of the issues that the Supreme Court had to consider. Perry`s description of oral arguments is particularly good because it cleverly interweaves the intricacies of equality jurisprudence with the fascinating biographical details about judges in dramatic narrative form. In Schuette v.
2014 Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that Michigan`s constitutional amendment prohibiting affirmative action is constitutional. [8] While Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer agreed with O`Connor, Rehnquist, Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas disagreed. The dissent argued that the use of race as a factor in admission decisions was indeed a way to promote a quota system, and that it should now be illegal not to use racist affirmative action plans in 25 years. After Michigan voters banned affirmative action at public colleges and universities, minority enrollment at the University of Michigan declined. As a result, even 11 years later, the school continues to struggle to build a diverse composition of new first-year students each year. Just like many other schools across the country, the University of Michigan has faced the challenge of favoring minorities whose credentials are below the average performance of the majority of campuses. This discourages them and gives them less chance of success. From this struggle to find the most effective way to create diversity, the school made huge efforts to improve the problem after the 2006 court ruling. The university`s recent efforts over the past two years, particularly under the new leadership of President Mark Schlissel, have used innovative solutions to solve the problem of diversity on campus. In its controversial 1978 Bakke decision, the Supreme Court upheld racial and ethnic diversity in university admissions — but that shouldn`t be the last word on the issue. When Jennifer Gratz and Barbara Grutter challenged the University of Michigan`s admissions policy because they had been dismissed in favor of supposedly less qualified minority candidates, the court was again forced to deal with affirmative action.
U-M President Mary Sue Coleman reacted to the news of the court`s decision: “In this captivating and easy-to-read book, the author comprehensively analyzes the Affirmative Action Act before and after the Bakke case, Michigan`s refusal to admit Jennifer Gratz and Barbara Grutter, their alliance with conservative advocacy groups to use them for discrimination, and oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court. Finally, it provides a detailed overview of Justice Sandra Day O`Connor`s crucial decision to defend diversity as a legitimate interest of government, while emphasizing that the government`s power in the pursuit of diversity was not unlimited. This well-written book is useful for anyone interested in civil rights and freedoms or the right to education. Highly recommended. Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) is a Supreme Court case in which the University of Michigan School of Law denied entry to Barbara Grutter, a student with a cumulative grade point average of 3.8 and an LSAT score of 161. She sued the university, and then-president Lee Bollinger was the accused. Grutter argued that she had been discriminated against on the basis of her race, which would violate the 14th Amendment, and that she had been rejected because the university had used race as one of the admission factors. She also argued that the University of Michigan has no compelling interest in using the race to grant admission to minority students.
The University of Michigan (Bollinger) School of Law disagreed, saying there was a compelling state interest in taking racist positive steps to build a “critical mass” of minority students. In Justice Powell`s diversity ration, the Supreme Court stated, “Student body diversity is a higher interest of the state that can justify the use of race in university admission.” [2] They see this policy as positive because it increases diversity on campus and does not allow anyone to feel isolated on campus. “An excellent book and a high-quality addition to the literature on affirmative action and higher education. Easy to read and understand, it will be a required reading in my classroom – Legal Issues in Higher Education – and may well become a common addition to graduate and/or political courses and programs across the country. LSA Dean Terrence McDonald said the court`s decision to confirm Bakke testified to the importance of a diverse student body. .