President Bush's opposition to the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy has some MSU officials and students fuming.
"The Michigan policies amount to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes prospective students, based solely on their race," said Bush, while announcing Wednesday he will petition the Supreme Court to overturn the school's policy.
While the president says the policy is divisive and unfair, Rodney Patterson, director of the Office of Racial Ethnic Student Affairs at MSU, said it's necessary to balance opportunities for minorities.
"The people who created this lawsuit were strategic, intentional and calculated in their attempt to dismantle the works of affirmative action," he said. "If you remove emotion from the situation and look at it mathematically, there are only so many ways to balance a scale, and beyond those there are no options."
Racial and socioeconomic factors result in an extra 20 points for undergraduate applicants on U-M's 150-point admissions scale. The U-M Law School doesn't use a point system but gives extra consideration to those applicants as well.
U-M President Mary Sue Coleman said she agrees with Bush on the need for racial diversity, but doesn't feel U-M policies are unfair.
"It is unfortunate that the president misunderstands how our admissions process works," she said in a statement. "It is a complex process that considers the entire background of each student applicant, just as the president urged."
Michigan senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow expressed disappointment in the president's announcement.
"This debate is much greater than the admissions policy of one university," Stabenow said. "This is about whether or not we are going to have equal opportunities for all Americans."
If colleges can give special consideration to children of alumni and large donors, Levin said schools should be allowed to take reasonable steps toward racial diversity.
Maria Dorado, coordinator for Chicano/Latino Student Affairs also was troubled by Bush's statement.
"Obviously, the president is not in touch with the community of colors' needs or he would not be opposed to affirmative action," she said. "It sends a message to students of color saying that, 'We are not willing to work with you or consider different attributes or areas of your life.'"
But Jason Miller, chairman for the MSU College Republicans and a State News columnist, said he supported Bush's stance.
"Diversity is about more than race, and should be based on socioeconomic status as well," he said. "The 14th Amendment says you cannot discriminate against race, and the (U-M) policy does just that."
In place of affirmative action, the Bush administration will push an "affirmative access" policy that guarantees admissions to the top students from high schools, including low-income neighborhoods.
Despite Bush's efforts, Argentina Lewis, president of Black Student Alliance, said affirmative action is the only way to achieve diversity.
"Affirmative action applies to more than just racial ethnic groups," she said. "He can't just try to take away one program and replace it with another, because it just won't work."
