Category Archives: Diversity

ABC News: Colleges Look Overseas for Racial Diversity

Carol Swain grew up poor, one of 12 children, and dropped out of the ninth grade to get married. Three children later, at 20, her life was thrown into crisis — a daughter had died of crib death, she filed for divorce and took a job at a garment factory.

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Inside Higher Ed: Defeat for Affirmative Action

A decades-old, popular program in which colleges prepare minority high school students for journalism degrees and careers in the field will no longer focus exclusively on minority students.

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The Chronicle News Bloghttp://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=1599

David Horowitz, the conservative activist, has unveiled a new terrorism-awareness campaign aimed at college campuses. It encourages students to look beyond what Mr. Horowitz calls anti-American teachings by college professors and understand the threat of radical Islam.

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The New York Times: Michigan: Affirmative Action Suit Settled

A lawsuit that prompted a 2003 Supreme Court decision over affirmative action admissions policies at the University of Michigan has been settled, concluding a nearly decade-long battle. The university will pay $10,000 each to the lead plaintiffs, Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher, to cover miscellaneous costs, both sides said. In exchange, the two agreed to drop all claims under a nearly 40,000-member class-action lawsuit against the university over its former affirmative action admissions policies. In June 2003, the Supreme Court upheld a general affirmative action policy at Michigan’s law school but struck down its undergraduate formula, which awarded admission points based on race. Ms. Gratz and Mr. Hamacher had sued over the undergraduate formula. In November, Michigan voters approved a ban on the use of race and gender preferences in university admissions and government hiring.

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Daily Press: Judge throws out lawsuits over college’s coed move

A judge on Tuesday dismissed two lawsuits filed against Randolph-Macon Woman’s College by opponents of the private school’s decision to admit men.

Lynchburg Circuit Judge Leyburn Mosby Jr.’s action was a blow to students and alumnae hoping the lawsuits would reverse the decision by the school’s governing body to begin admitting men this fall.

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The Chronicle News Blog:

Michigan Universities File U.S. Supreme Court Brief Over Affirmative-Action Ban

Michigan’s three largest public universities have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court to seek a delay in complying with their state’s new constitutional amendment banning the use of affirmative-action preferences by public colleges and other public agencies.

In a brief submitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University argue that a U.S. District Court judge acted appropriately in signing off on a deal between the universities and state officials giving the institutions until the summer to change their policies.

The district court’s decision was overturned last month by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, effectively forcing the universities to comply immediately with the ban on policies that grant preferences based on race, ethnicity, or gender. The Sixth Circuit’s ruling is being challenged before the Supreme Court by a Detroit-based group, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary, commonly known as BAMN. The universities submitted their brief to the Supreme Court in connection with the BAMN challenge.

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The Chronicle: U. of Colorado at Boulder Is Criticized for Its Diversity Expenditures

A Colorado think tank critical of affirmative action has issued a report alleging that the University of Colorado at Boulder has little idea how much money it spends on various diversity efforts and poorly manages such expenditures.

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The News & Observer: Venom has aftereffects for Duke

The two top administrators at Duke University met with faculty behind closed doors Thursday to discuss free speech and the boundaries of civility in what has become a poisonous climate of blogs, hateful letters and racist e-mail.

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Detroit Free Press: Supreme Court may weigh in on Proposal 2

The U.S. Supreme Court may wade into the ongoing legal battle over Proposal 2, the voter-approved ban on the use of preferential treatment based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin public institutions, including universities.

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The New York Times: Michigan: University to Comply With Ruling

The University of Michigan acceded to a federal appeals court decision and said it would immediately comply with the state’s new ban on affirmative action in public education, employment or contracting. The Michigan ballot initiative banning preferences based on race or gender passed overwhelmingly in November and was to go into effect on Dec. 23. But the University of Michigan, together with Michigan State University and Wayne State University, went to court seeking a six-month delay, on the ground that they were midway through an admissions cycle. A federal district judge granted the delay on Dec. 19, but on Dec. 29, a federal appeals court ordered immediate compliance.

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Washington Post: U.S. Education Officials Question Diversity Standard

The Education Department’s general counsel is challenging the American Bar Association’s new standard on diversity in enrollment and hiring, which calls for the law schools it accredits to take “concrete action” to attract more minority students, faculty and staff.

The 400,000-member law association, which has accredited nearly 200 law schools nationwide, said it updated its standards last year after a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that said law schools could use race and ethnicity as factors in admissions with certain restrictions.

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The Ann Arbor News: E-mail views split on fighting Prop 2: Coleman, regents deluged with messages; president’s speech drew more fire than praise

In the days immediately after Michigan voters passed a ban on race and gender preferences in university admissions, University of Michigan leaders were swamped with e-mails from around the state and country urging them to follow the law and not fight the will of the voters.

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Detroit News: Racial ban back on for 3 colleges

A federal appeals court ruled Friday night that Michigan’s three largest universities must immediately remove race and gender consideration from their admissions and financial aid decisions and fully comply with Proposal 2.

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Inside Higher Ed: Race and Careers

It was just a quick aside, but it was one that speakers and audience members returned to:

Lisa Outar, an assistant professor of English at St. John’s University, in New York, mentioned she had seen how many departments want to hire people who “embody what you teach.” Her “visible Indianness” wasn’t what she was thinking about as her top issue when she did her job search — she was more focused on finding a university with a diverse student body, where people would be excited by her interest in Caribbean literature.

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Inside Higher Ed: Short-Term Reprieve for Affirmative Action

Three Michigan universities on Tuesday won the right to keep their current admissions and financial aid policies — the affirmative action portions of which could have been illegal in the state by the end of the week — until July 1. But long term, the ability of colleges to challenge the ban on affirmative action remained uncertain, with some advocates saying that the day’s developments strengthened efforts to do so, and others saying just the opposite.

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The Chronicle: Despite Small Gains, Women and Minority-Group Members Still Land Few Jobs in College Sports, Report Says

Increasing numbers of women and members of minority groups were hired in college sports in the past year, but white men continued to hold an overwhelming majority of positions, according to a report released on Wednesday

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The Chronicle: Ward Connerly Names States That May Be His Next Targets for Bans on Affirmative-Action Preferences

Ward Connerly, who played a key role in successful campaigns persuading voters in three states to prohibit the use of racial and ethnic preferences by public colleges and other state agencies, announced on Wednesday that he was looking at nine other states as potential sites for similar referenda in the fall of 2008.

Citing his most recent success, in Michigan, where 58 percent of voters last month approved an amendment to the state Constitution banning affirmative-action preferences, Mr. Connerly said he was optimistic that the days when colleges considered applicants’ race and ethnicity would soon be over. “I think that we are witnessing the end of an era,” he said.

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The New York Times: An Inward Look at Racial Tension at Trinity College

James F. Jones Jr. had been president of Trinity College for two years before a black student pointed out to him that he always ate lunch on the side of the dining hall where white students gather.

Since that day last month, Mr. Jones, who is white, has made a point of taking a table on the other side, with the minority students.

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