Georgia is one of several states where white plaintiffs are in court charging reverse discrimination in the admissions policies of public universities. A recent ruling in a suit against UGA raises more questions than it answers.

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The national debate Race no longer "major factor" at U-Mass The University of Massachusetts, which had used race as a "major factor" in admissions decisions in an effort to increase minority enrollment to 20 percent of undergraduates, changed that policy in March. Chancellor David K. Scott said a minority applicant's race will now receive the same "plus" in admissions as is given to students who are poor. As a result, the proportion of minority freshmen is expected to decline from 19 percent to as low as 13 percent this September. Scott said he supports affirmative action but felt the change was necessary because of the chilly legal climate. "Our policy used race as a major factor in reaching our goal," he said, "rather than a narrowly tailored factor within a set of factors." Experts: racial inequities require affirmative action Lawsuits are currently pending against the University of Michigan and the University of Washington School of Law, challenging the use of race in admissions policies. Either case is seen as potentially reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, a panel of social scientists and legal experts released a report in May urging colleges to retain affirmative-action policies to respond to persistent racial inequities in society. "Facts matter in the debate, and we are trying to present a bunch of findings that, in aggregate, support the use of race-conscious policies," the panel's co-chairman, Kenji Hakuta of Stanford, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. Copies of the report can be ordered from the Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (650/725-8411) or by visiting this website. Authors say race-sensitive policies have achieved goals In a 1998 book by the former presidents of Harvard and Princeton, the argument is put forth that race-sensitive admissions policies have achieved the goals of providing promising careers for African-American students and promoting interracial interaction on campuses. The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions is based on a massive analysis of the academic, employment, and personal histories of more than 45,000 students who entered 28 selective colleges between the 1970s and early 1990s. The authors, William G. Bowen and Derek Bok, say their study shows that those black students who might have been turned away if race had not been an admissions factor have achieved academic and professional success. "The discussion of affirmative action is all heat and no light," says Robert M. Solow, an emeritus professor of economics at MIT. "Here are two very smart people with a long background in higher education who have actually collected data. You naturally live in hope that people will read it, and the character of the discussion will change." Who gets in: points to ponder Competition to attend college will become more intense The millions of Baby Boomers who flooded the nation's schools dec-ades ago are filling classrooms again—with their children. Nationally, the number of students in elementary and high schools is closing in on the previous high recorded in 1970. Enrollment of traditional college-age students—those under 25—reached a record 9.4 million in 1997. Will gender-weighting also be challenged in court? Recent court challenges have focused on claims of racial discrimination in universities' admissions policies. But questions might also be raised about other factors. A number of institutions, including UGA, currently weight gender as part of the decision-making process—giving a degree of advantage to males. Why? In 1996, 8.4 million women were enrolled in college, compared with 6.7 million men. By 2007, the number of men is projected to edge up to 6.9 million, but the number of women will zoom to 9.2 million. At UGA, the male-female ratio in recent years has been 45-55, but would tip more if gender were eliminated as a factor in admissions decisions. Tuition increases more harmful to lower-income families Tuition increases, which continue to outpace inflation nationwide, are particularly devastating to those in lower-income brackets. In a recent opinion piece published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, North Carolina governor James B. Hunt pointed out that a person from a family in the highest income quartile (above $72,000 in 1996) has an 80 percent chance of reaching college by age 24. A person from a family in the lowest quartile (less than $24,500 in 1996) has only a 35 percent chance of reaching college by the same age. UGA admissions by the numbers The large majority of students are admitted to UGA solely on the basis of their academic records. For a small percentage evaluated under the "total student index," race is just one of a number of factors the admissions office takes into consideration. The following chart contains a breakdown of white and African American enrollment since '95. WHITE Year Applied Accepted Enrolled 1995 10,923 6,563 3,093 1996 10,787 6,066 3,038 1997 9,336 7,189 3,709 1998 10,200 7,136 3,714 AFRICAN AMERICAN Year Applied Accepted Enrolled 1995 1,556 890 438 1996 1,475 664 238 1997 1,254 588 243 1998 1,421 584 259

1997 lawsuit filed by three white students who claimed they were victims of reverse discrimination in the University's undergraduate admissions policies has been marked "case closed." But the issues raised by the suit are far from settled.

In July, U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield (BBA '56, JD '58) made the last of several rulings in the two-year-old case, which is one of a number around the country challenging the use of race and ethnicity in admissions decisions. Edenfield dismissed the claim of one plaintiff and ruled that another—who he decided in January was discriminated against under a UGA admissions policy no longer in effect—was entitled to monetary damages of just $1.

But then, in a move described by a constitutional scholar as "very unusual," Edenfield proceeded to offer his opinion on the legality of current UGA admissions practices which weight race, among other factors, in one stage of the process used to determine the final 10-15 percent of students accepted.

"From a lawyer's perspective, what happened here was quite exceptional," says Dan Coenen, who teaches constitutional law in UGA's School of Law and was once a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. "Basically, the judge threw the case out—and then decided the case. That's incompatible with traditional practice in judicial decision-making."

Edenfield's opinion challenges the prevailing Supreme Court decision on the use of race-based factors in admissions—the 1978 Bakke case, which involved a white student who claimed he had been wrongfully excluded from the medical school at the University of California-Davis to make room for minority applicants. The court was sharply divided on how to interpret the Constitution and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlaws discrimination in programs or activities receiving federal financial aid. The deciding opinion, written by Justice Lewis Powell, condemned the use of quotas but ruled that admissions officers could take race into account as one of several factors in evaluating candidates in order to encourage diversity on campus.

In the intervening years, Supreme Court rulings in a small number of affirmative-action cases—centering on employment and government contracting—have been viewed by some as eroding the Bakke decision. But that is up for debate.

"The lay person wants this neat and clear: Is affirmative action OK or not?" says Coenen. "It's not that simple."

In 1996, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a ruling by a district court in Texas, where a three-judge panel found that a white woman named Cheryl Hopwood and three other applicants had suffered reverse discrimination in their applications to the University of Texas law school. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrote that the court would not judge the Texas admissions policy because it had been altered since the case was filed in 1992.

Following the Hopwood ruling, UGA administrators decided to revise a dual-track admissions policy that was used here from 1990-95. Claire Swann, admissions director at the time, said the policy—which allowed somewhat lower academic standards for black applicants than whites—was adopted to increase the number of African-American students on campus. "That was the commitment," she says, "and we sought to find students who could succeed here and graduate."

Through the years, the University has tried other strategies to redress a past where black students were excluded on the basis of race until 1961. "In the early '70s, there was a time when we filled the freshman class on a first-come, first-served basis for anyone with a B-plus average," says Swann, whose career in admissions spanned 34 years.

But Judge Edenfield found that Kirby Tracy, who applied for admission in 1995 when the dual-track system was in effect, was discriminated against because his academic record was better than some black students who were admitted that year. Tracy was later admitted to UGA as a transfer student.

The two other plaintiffs in the current case applied in 1996 and 1997 under a revised admissions policy. Edenfield dismissed those claims, finding that race did not play a role in the decisions to deny those applications, but also said the University "cannot constitutionally justify the affirmative use of race in its admissions decisions."

Coenen says he can understand why Edenfield may have wanted to take this action. "The judge has lived with this case for two years," says Coenen. "It's a high-profile case, and he has obviously reflected a lot on it. Perhaps for these reasons, he decided to express his views on the subject."

UGA's admissions practice since 1996 has involved a three-stage process, with academic criteria a driving component throughout. Most students—some 85 percent of any incoming class—are offered admission solely on the basis of an academic index that is determined primarily by looking at standardized test scores and grades in core curricula. The next 10 to 15 percent of the freshman class is determined using what the admissions office calls a "total student index," which is determined by adding to the academic index additional points (ranging from .1 to 1) for a number of factors. Those factors include not only race and gender (.5 for being "non-white" or male), but also, for example, whether a prospective student is a Georgia resident, the child of an alumnus, or the first in the family to seek a college education.

"By far the large majority of students are admitted solely on academic records," says current admissions director Nancy McDuff. "For the small percentage of students evaluated under the total student index, no single factor determines whether an applicant is admitted or denied."

Once students above and below an established range for the total student index have been admitted or rejected, the remaining applications—several hundred from an initial pool of more than 13,000—are submitted to a final stage where each application is read and evaluated individually.

Plaintiff Craig Green's application made it to this stage before being rejected, but Edenfield found that while the final evaluations are subjective, there is "no evidence to infer that race plays a factor."

In the wake of Edenfield's rulings, the University—along with other institutions across the country—is faced with the continuing dilemma of what is legally permissible in admissions.

President Michael F. Adams, in a statement released to media in July, said the University will review its admissions practices while continuing efforts to "diligently recruit qualified minority students."

How that will play out is yet to be determined. "This is a grand opportunity for this institution to do some innovative things," says Sherwood Thompson, UGA's new director of the Office of Minority Services and Programs. Thompson says minority students, especially African Americans, have expressed concerns about the Edenfield ruling. "They've been holding court in my office the last few days," he said shortly after the ruling. "They've expressed displeasure with the fact that there are still debates about the issue of pursuing educational access for minority students, since society as a whole makes considerable gains from their inclusion."

Newspaper columnists and editorial writers also have weighed in on the issues. The Atlanta Constitution and The Red & Black have called for the University to maintain its current admissions policy, while the Atlanta Journal and the Athens Daily News/Banner-Herald have come out against affirmative action in admissions—urging instead that more attention be given to college preparation for underrepresented populations in the K-12 grades.

While the University sorts through the issues, Craig Green hasn't given up on UGA. Like many students turned down for admission as freshmen, he hopes to transfer here as soon as he accumulates enough credit hours elsewhere.

One thing about the Edenfield ruling is certain, says Coenen: "This decision is not the end of the conversation. It's the launching point for more discussion."

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