Michigan admissions rules move toward Supreme Court

DETROIT -- Barbara Grutter spent years as a health care consultant, had good grades and high test scores. So when she was rejected by the University of Michigan's law school, she wondered why her life experiences hadn't caught the eye of admissions officers.

"I thought my application was a very good example that when U of M used the word 'diversity,' they really meant race," says Grutter, 49.

She and two other white applicants, who wanted to get into the school's undergraduate program, sued the university. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether the undergraduate college and law school should be allowed to use race as a factor in admissions.

The cases have sparked an affirmative action debate unlike any seen since the court ruled 5-4 in 1978 to outlaw racial quotas in university admissions but allowed race to be considered as a factor.

Applicants for Michigan's undergraduate classes are scored by points, with minorities, some underprivileged applicants and some athletes receiving a boost of 20 points on a scale of 150. The school also awards points based on alumni relationships, Michigan residency and residency in underrepresented Michigan counties. The law school uses a looser formula that aims for a "critical mass" in minority enrollment.

"The goal is to have enough students from certain groups so that they don't feel isolated and so that majority students have enough interaction to have a positive educational effect," said university attorney Marvin Krislov.

Nearly 14 percent of the school's students are minority group members.

Opportunities lost

But for Grutter, Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher, the cases aren't just about the numbers -- they're about opportunities lost when they didn't get into the Ann Arbor school. All three plaintiffs were interviewed by phone; a lawyer for the Center for Individual Rights, which filed their lawsuits, listened in.

Shaken by the university's rejection, Gratz says she gave up a longtime ambition to study medicine. She instead earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan-Dearborn -- where she believes she got fewer opportunities than at the Ann Arbor campus.

Gratz, now 25, married, living in Oceanside, Calif. and working for a technology company, said her decision to give up medicine was made as a naive 17-year-old.

"When I received that letter, I went through a whole series of emotions. I was upset, I was embarrassed ... I lost my confidence" she said.

Gratz says her thoughts turned immediately to race, especially because she had earned a 3.8 grade point average and a 25 out of a possible 36 on her ACT college entrance exam while cheerleading, tutoring and keeping score at high school baseball games.

The university maintains that race is just one of many factors in an admissions decision, and that academic performance -- accounting for 110 points on the 150-point scale -- is the overwhelming consideration.

"Admissions is a very complicated process, not a mechanical plugging-in of numbers," Krislov said.

But Gratz says the school's argument -- that not being allowed to consider race would disproportionately affect the diversity of its student body -- proves race is a "determining factor."

The University of Michigan receives more than 25,000 applications for about 5,200 spaces in its undergraduate freshman classes. More than 5,000 apply for about 350 spots in an incoming law school class. Total enrollment is about 38,000.

"I don't feel that I was entitled to a spot at U of M, but I do feel that I had a right to a fair opportunity to apply, and they didn't provide that," said Hamacher, 24.

Hamacher, a Flint city accountant, earned his bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and will get his master's from Central Michigan University in May. He won't speculate how life would be different had he been admitted to Michigan, but "there are a lot of doors that are made available to Michigan students that I wasn't able to use."

Hamacher suggests any race considerations "endorse discrimination."

"There is racism in this country and people do look at each other differently based on the color of their skin," he says. "But to say that our public policy should not only allow that but endorse it is just not right."