MSU trustees should be ashamed of themselves for sitting on their hands while their Maize and Blue neighbors are being hauled into a court case that could alter university admissions policies across the country.
Whether they find themselves in agreement with the University of Michigan's law school affirmative action policies is beside the point. MSU's elected policymakers ought to engage in the national discussion and offer the Supreme Court their opinions.
In all, 17 colleges and universities have independently filed legal briefs supporting U-M's admissions policies as of Wednesday afternoon. The university also has gained the support of hundreds of organizations, including General Motors Corp., Microsoft and Intel.
Another 15 briefs, including one from President Bush, have weighed in against the policy.
U-M's policy awards admittance points to socially and economically disadvantaged students.
While Trustee Colleen McNamara said she would like MSU to support its Big Ten colleague, she believes the Board of Trustees as a whole is uncomfortable with the term affirmative action.
Well, who cares if the board is conformable with the term? That is not the issue at hand.
It is simply unacceptable for the board to take the position of Trustee Randall Pittman when he said the U-M policy is for the Supreme Court to decide, not MSU officials.
Dismissing this issue as a U-M case and not an MSU case is inexcusable.
MSU should feel some sense of duty to weigh in on such a prevalent topic for university and college admissions policies.
While the Supreme Court is the ultimate interpreter of the law of the land, it does not operate outside the public forum. The court should consider argument from all sides.
MSU trustees have an obligation to involve themselves in such issues.
It matters more that the elected MSU governors voice their opinions than it does that they agree. Justices of the Supreme Court hardly unanimously agree. Trustees could file majority and dissenting briefs.
Granted, MSU and U-M do not have the friendliest of relationships, but football fields, basketball courts and ice areas matter little in the grander scale of things.
It would be an embarrassment to all Spartans if their elected officials did not speak up while their neighbor and Big Ten rival is dragged into court.
In its list of university supporters, highlighted by Ivy League schools, not one of its Big Ten comrades is mentioned. It's time the members of the conference, including MSU, weigh in.
The Board of Trustees should get off its hands and begin drafting an opinion or two to send to Washington.
MSU ought to engage in the governmental process and not sit idly by while it wonders if the principles of university admissions policies are to change.
