Judge Hears Michigan Admissions Case

DETROIT (AP) â€” Race-influenced admissions policies help the University of Michigan create common ground in an otherwise fragmented society, a school attorney argues. <br><br>But a lawyer representing

Friday, November 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DETROIT (AP) â€” Race-influenced admissions policies help the University of Michigan create common ground in an otherwise fragmented society, a school attorney argues.

But a lawyer representing white students who claim they were unfairly excluded from Michigan calls the policies ``blunt instruments'' that ignore individual achievement and are mere quotas by another name.

U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan heard both arguments Thursday as each side urged an immediate ruling in its favor, rather than a trial of the lawsuit filed against the university by the Center for Individual Rights.

Duggan did not indicate when he would rule on the requests. But Curt Levey, one of the attorneys for the Washington, D.C.-based organization, said he expected the judge to issue a decision by early next month.

Duggan said that regardless of how he ruled, ``without question we all know this case is going to a higher court after I hear it.''

The university faces two lawsuits filed in 1997 over its use of race and ethnicity in considering whom to admit. Thursday's hearing involved the suit filed by two white students over undergraduate admissions policies. The other suit, scheduled for trial Jan. 16, involves the law school's admissions criteria.

About 40 demonstrators in favor of the admissions policies, some carrying hand-lettered signs, chanted and marched peaceably outside the federal courthouse before the hearing. The group included students from Michigan's Ann Arbor and Flint campuses, Michigan State University and Detroit-area high schools, organizer Shanta Driver said.

``If the affirmative action programs are struck down at the University of Michigan, then similar plans at other schools will be in jeopardy,'' Driver said.

John Payton, the attorney representing the university, said race and ethnicity is ``just a single but important element'' of Michigan's admissions policies.

Applicants' high school grades and test scores are another criterion, but not an overriding one, he said. He noted that some white applicants with higher marks than other whites â€” not just minorities â€” have been denied admission because of other factors.

Michigan does not use quotas, but makes no secret of the fact that it wants ``more than a token number of black students,'' Payton said.

Those policies, however, mean a higher standard is applied to white applicants than ``to a few select racial groups,'' said Kurt Kolbo, attorney for the Center for Individual Rights.

``I don't think there's any doubt about the existence of this double standard,'' Kolbo said. ``The university can deny they have that policy, but they've virtually admitted that is the case.''

Michigan reported last month that nearly 15 percent of its freshman class comprised blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans.

The original plaintiffs in the suit against the undergraduate school were Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher. Gratz graduated from the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus and recently took a job in San Diego with a software company; Hamacher is a senior at Michigan State University, Levey said.