In June, less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its ruling on the issue of affirmative action, MSU and University of Michigan officials said it was too soon to tell whether the decision has had a significant impact on the number of minority students at either college.

In June 2003, the court ruled U-M could continue to look at race in the admissions process, but could not grant points on an application because of it.

"The Supreme Court verdict was a victory for us," U-M spokeswoman Julie Peterson said. "It is one tool we can use to compose a diverse student body."

The new application process at U-M no longer uses a point system, but still considers race as one of the factors in admissions. Peterson says the new system looks more individually at students' backgrounds and achievements.

"We met with school counselors to help them navigate the new applications and had meetings and workshops all aimed at helping people understand and feel more comfortable with the new process," Peterson said.

The new application process, however, was followed by a drop in the number of minority students applying to U-M. According to numbers released by U-M, there was a drop of 473 black student applicants between fall 2003 and fall 2004. However, the number of black students with paid enrollment - where students pay to have a spot held for them in the college - increased by 60.

"Any time you make changes to the application, it takes a while for some people to catch up," Peterson said. "We are concerned about African-American students numbers going down."

She also said the university is working to get more minority students interested in the college by working on its outreach programs, which sends university officials to local high schools.

While U-M was re-writing its applications, MSU's admissions policies remained untouched due to their compliance with the standards set out by the court.

"The approach we took was a holistic approach, and that's what the court held," said Paulette Granberry Russell, the director of the Office of Affirmative Action, Compliance and Monitoring. "You have to consider each individual and what they bring to the institution - you have to look at the whole person."

At MSU, where race is looked at during admissions, the number of black students declined from 3,675 in fall 2002 to 3,604 in fall 2003.

Granberry Russell said MSU also is trying to use more outreach programs to help minority students get in and be successful in college.

She also said many factors play into why numbers of black students went down, but it is hard to pinpoint the reasons why.

The ruling also has changed the political landscape of affirmative action and helped intensify the topic in the past few months, according to some of the state's political organizations.

"Our organization wouldn't exist without the decision," said Chetly Zarko, spokesman for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. "The court didn't rule in a principled way. A plain reading of the constitution would have been more favorable for us."

The initiative pushed to put a measure on the November 2004 ballot that would make using racial preference in admissions policies and hiring practices illegal. The initiative is now trying to get the issue on the ballot for 2006.

Other measures tried to ban affirmative action, including a measure tacked onto the higher education bill in June that would have stopped federal funding to schools that use race, religion, creed and national origin in the admissions process.

The amendment, that passed the house on June 9 as part of the state's higher education budget, likely targeted schools that consider race - such as the University of Michigan. The Senate however, rejected the budget on June 15 along with the measure.

The court ruling is important to supporters of affirmative action, said Shanta Driver, spokeswoman and co-chairwoman of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary.

"I think it's tremendously moralizing for minority students," Driver said.

Student opinion remains mixed on the issue, however.

Then-U-M economics sophomore Brian Wei, who is Asian American, said he likes the idea of diversity, but not the point system that was used by U-M.

"I think it's important to maintain a diverse community, but I think the old system was unfair," Wei said.

Other students however, believe affirmative action is important to have.

"I feel like affirmative action gives me an advantage because I'm a first-generation college student," said Queayna Battle, a then-MSU elementary education junior, who is black.