Bush Opposes Diversity Policy at University

WASHINGTON —  President Bush on Wednesday denounced as “divisive, unfair” and unconstitutional a University of Michigan affirmative action program that favors blacks and Latinos, and he directed his administration to join the legal case against the school’s admissions policy.

With his decision, Bush weighed in on one of the most important affirmative action cases to reach the Supreme Court in a generation. He also sought to reach out to his critics by proclaiming his desire to achieve racial and ethnic diversity through other means.

“I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education. But the method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this important goal is fundamentally flawed,” Bush said in a seven-minute statement before television cameras at the White House.

“At their core, the Michigan policies amount to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes” students based on their race, Bush said.

For undergraduate applicants, the Ann Arbor campus gives 20 extra points to minority applicants, where 100 points normally merits admission. The law school does not rely as strictly on numbers, but says it seeks a “critical mass” of minority students.

Bush said the motivation behind such preferences “may be very good, but its result is discrimination.”

University President Mary Sue Coleman on Wednesday took issue with Bush’s characterization of the school’s program, saying the president “misunderstands” the university’s admissions process.

“We do not have, and have never had, quotas or numerical targets in either the undergraduate or law school admissions programs,” Coleman said. “Academic qualifications are the overwhelming consideration for admission to both programs.”

The Supreme Court will grapple with the differing descriptions of the Michigan program when it considers the case this spring.

Part of the court record will be a “narrowly tailored” legal brief filed today with the Supreme Court by the administration, a senior Bush official said. The administration will argue that Michigan’s program “flunks” the constitutional test for use of racial and ethnic preferences -- but it will not seek to “address the outer limits of what the Constitution permits or doesn’t permit” in efforts to attain greater diversity.

By taking sides in the Michigan case, the president spotlighted the political tightrope that he and his fellow Republicans have been walking in recent weeks -- trying to keep the party’s conservative base happy while wooing minorities.

His decision came just weeks after a public outcry forced Republicans to oust their Senate leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, over comments he made that seemed sympathetic to segregation. Bush denounced Lott’s comments, a key factor that led to Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee replacing him as the GOP leader. And since that flap, Frist and other Republicans have sought to stress the party’s commitment to minorities.

Bush could have stayed out of the Michigan case, since the federal government is not directly involved in the dispute. But conservatives have been eager for the administration to take a stand against the Michigan program.

Bush’s decision culminated a lively debate within the White House that involved many top officials, including Karl Rove, his chief political strategist, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who is black and previously served as provost of Stanford University. White House officials would not say what position Rice took.

In his statement, Bush argued that diversity in higher education can be achieved without quotas, and he cited the experiences of California, Florida and Texas.

“In those states,” Bush said, “race-neutral admissions policies have resulted in levels of minority attendance for incoming students that are close to, and in some instances slightly surpass, those under the old race-based approach.”

In California, public schools have been barred from using affirmative action in admissions or hiring since voters banned such practices by passing Proposition 209 in 1996.

University of California regents last year endorsed a major shift in the university’s admissions policy to allow personal achievements, not just grades and test scores, to be considered for all freshman applicants. The plan would allow consideration of such factors as a student’s struggle against poverty or his or her athletic or artistic ability.

In his remarks, Bush conceded that “much more” progress toward diversity in higher education is needed, but he said that efforts to redress “the wrong of racial prejudice” must not themselves “perpetuate those wrongs.”

Some moderate congressional Republicans had hoped that Bush would steer clear of the Michigan case.

Hours before Bush announced his decision, four northeastern Republican centrists -- Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, and Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine -- sent the president a letter saying he should promote diversity.

“Many Republicans throughout the nation believe that diversity should be recognized as a compelling government interest in the admissions policies of institutions of higher education,” the four wrote. “Accordingly, we urge your administration not to support the position of plaintiffs that diversity can never be considered a compelling government interest. This could do significant harm to our system of higher education.”

Democrats wasted little time lambasting Bush’s decision. “Once again today, the administration has said, as clearly by their actions as anyone can, that they will continue to side with those who oppose civil rights and oppose diversity in this country,” Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said on the Senate floor moments after Bush spoke.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus, said Bush “risks falling into an immoral position, one filled with nothing but bare hypocrisy.”

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), the former House minority leader and an expected contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, said he would file a court brief in support of the Michigan program. Gephardt graduated from Michigan’s law school.

Bush’s critics noted with irony that his decision came on what would have been the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 74th birthday.

The Supreme Court has been moving gradually toward outlawing “race-conscious” decision-making by government officials.

A 5-4 majority has ruled that cities cannot set aside a certain percentage of contracts for black and Latino entrepreneurs. Similarly, the court has ruled that states cannot use race to redraw congressional districts and create black-majority districts.

But the court has not ruled directly on affirmative action in college admissions since the Allan Bakke case of 1978.

In that split ruling, the court outlawed the use of a racial quota at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

However, Justice Lewis F. Powell, in a key opinion, said colleges could use a student’s race as “plus” factor, so as to create a diverse student body.

Since then, colleges have relied on Powell’s opinion in the Bakke case to defend their affirmative action policies.

Lawyers for the white students who were rejected by the University of Michigan and its law school want the court to strike down “racial preferences” in college admissions.

But Coleman said the university also considers many factors, including geographic diversity, leadership, service and life experiences.

She termed the admissions policy “a complex process that takes many factors into account and considers the entire background of each student applicant, just as the president urged.”

Despite its potential to further inflame racial politics, Bush’s decision to join the plaintiffs’ case against Michigan was no surprise.

During his six years as Texas governor, and throughout his presidential campaign, Bush steadfastly opposed quotas as the way to achieve racial and ethnic diversity.

Rather, he advocated “affirmative access,” such as that practiced by the University of Texas after its affirmative action program was rejected by an appellate court.

Under affirmative access, the school admitted the top 10% of students in every Texas high school.

“Affirmative access is the president’s way of recognizing that America is a stronger country because of our rich diversity, and he seeks ways to encourage diversity and to do so in a way that does not rely on either quotas or racial preferences,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. On Monday, the official federal holiday for King, Bush is scheduled to participate in a round-table discussion on race at a predominantly black church in Maryland.

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Times staff writers David G. Savage in Washington and Julie Marquis in Los Angeles contributed to this report.