Michigan Celebrates High Court Ruling

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The heart of the University of Michigan campus erupted in celebration on Monday after the Supreme Court made a limited ruling upholding the school’s use of race in admissions—and, by extension, affirmative action programs nationwide.

The Court upheld the Michigan law school’s policy of using race as a factor in examining applications on a case-by-case basis, but struck down the undergraduate college’s use of a point system in admissions, which gave all underrepresented minorities a fixed boost.

At the University of Michigan’s flagship Ann Arbor campus, although the spring semester had ended and the summer semester had not yet begun, crowds of student activists—and television cameras— flooded Central Campus.

“This is a tremendous victory for the University of Michigan, for all of higher education, and for the hundreds of groups and individuals who supported us,” university President Mary Sue Coleman said in a statement. “A majority of the Court has firmly endorsed the principle of diversity.”

The admissions office rerouted tours to potential applicants, because they simply couldn’t weave their way through the crowd.

One group of students wore navy blue t-shirts that displayed the traditional “M” logo of the university’s athletic teams, which instead of “MICHIGAN,” bore the word “JUSTICE.”

Ironically, even though it was the Law School policy that won outright court approval, the Michigan Law Quad remained relatively quiet in the aftermath of the decision.

It was instead across the street, on the steps of the Michigan Union and on The Diag—two major undergraduate campus haunts—that the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), Students Supporting Affirmative Action, and other pro-affirmative action groups gathered.

“This is a huge victory for BAMN, and a huge victory for civil rights,” said Neal Lyons, 22, a Michigan senior and member of BAMN who helped organize the group’s April 1 march on Washington. “It proved us right when everybody else was saying that affirmative action was a sinking ship.”

Asked if the defeat of the points system would hinder the university’s commitment to affirmative action, Lyons said, “No, not at all. It simply means that we have to apply the Law School-type policies to undergraduates. If they have to hire a handful more admissions officers, that’s a small price to pay. They know what they have to do.”

The 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education will be next year, and Lyons said that BAMN plans to declare 2004 “the year of realizing the true promise” of that decision.

“This isn’t the end,” said Rahul Saksena, 21, a rising senior from Darien, Conn., and one of 100 members of Students Supporting Affirmative Action. “We’re going to continue to work. Affirmative action is just one step in the great fight for justice.”

Standing within sight of assembled television cameras, Lyons, Saksena, and others milling around the The Diag acknowledged that the prolonged nature and overall significance of the case has made it a defining element in their college lives.

“For a lot of the BAMN members here, this was the reason we came to school at Michigan,” said Kate Stenvig, 22, adding that she expected members of her group to be applauded when they returned to classes on Wednesday. “For some of us, it was the reason we stayed.”

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.