University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman claims enrollment at her school has dropped in the wake of Proposal 2. A short time after the initiative passed, Coleman implied the school would circumvent the law and subvert the people’s will by continuing to consider race as an admissions factor.
Providing a quality education, not reaching a quota of brown faces, strikes me as “of the highest importance,” but racial bean counters have strange priorities.
Affirmative action as originally conceived invoked the image of a hiring manager/college recruiter casting his net wider to include a larger and more diverse group of qualified candidates and applicants. It very quickly became racial preferences, which in many cases involves hiring and admitting black candidates whose qualifications are lower relative to those in the general pool. No matter how proponents try to spin it, this is a reality.
Without race preference bar-lowering, black students might be better off. They stand a better chance of excelling and graduating after four years if their qualifications match the school rather than struggling in academic settings for which they are unprepared. With preferences in place, there’s always the assumption that blacks were admitted through a lowered standards track, whether true or not.
College and university administrators seem to care more about having brown faces on admissions brochures than making sure all students receive the quality education they deserve, regardless of color.
Just one woman’s opinion!
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