LSA admissions policies to change

President Mary Sue Coleman says the University will begin immediately to work on a new policy for undergraduate admissions that will consider each applicant individually. The changes will be made in light of the Supreme Court decision that took exception to the LSA admissions system of awarding points for race and ethnicity.

"What the court said is that they uphold a very individualized plan," Coleman said. "Clearly we will start working on that right away." She said a new system will be in place by fall, in time to admit freshmen entering in 2004.

In a 6-3 decision in the undergraduate case (Gratz, et al. v. Bollinger, et al.), the court upheld affirmative action but found that the LSA admissions policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it assigns points to applicants based on race and ethnicity.

"The current LSA policy does not provide such individualized consideration," Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote in the majority opinion. "The LSA's policy automatically distributes 20 points to every single applicant from an 'underrepresented minority' group, as defined by the University. The only consideration that accompanies this distribution of points is a factual review of an application to determine whether an individual is a member of one of these minority groups."

Coleman said the high court's approval of the Law School admissions practices, noted in its 5-4 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, et al., shows that justices favor an individualized approach to achieving diversity. In the majority opinion in the Law School case, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the school "engages in a highly individualized, holistic review of each applicant's file, giving serious consideration to all the ways an applicant might contribute to a diverse educational environment." Coleman said a new undergraduate policy could mirror the Law School system.

"Whatever the new practice involves, we will continue our commitment to a diverse student body." —Provost Paul N. Courant

Provost Paul N. Courant acknowledged that a more individualized review of the 25,000 undergraduate applicants likely will involve more resources, but he and Coleman indicated it is too early to say what a new procedure will entail.

"Whatever the new practice involves, we will continue our commitment to a diverse student body," Courant said. He said the University must conduct further analysis of the court opinions before making any changes.

"We'll commit the resources to re-engineer that process," Board of Regents Chair Laurence Deitch said.

Although the University will have to change its practices, Vice President and General Counsel Marvin Krislov said the court's decision means "there can no longer be any serious debate as to whether race and ethnicity can be considered in admissions."

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• Supreme Court decisions uphold affirmative action
• Supreme Court portrait
• LSA admissions policies to change
• Students celebrate 'Unity, diversity, a better university'
• What others are saying
• The legal team: Marvin Krislov
• The legal team: John Payton
• The legal team: Jonathan Alger
• The legal team: Maureen Mahoney
• The legal team: Evan Caminker
• The legal team: Jeffrey Lehman
• The legal team: Charlotte Johnson
• The legal team: Liz Barry
• Excerpts from the Law School opinion
• Excerpts from the undergraduate opinion
• Scenes from the Supreme Court