The University as Victim

2020 ◽  
pp. 243-258
Author(s):  
Matthew Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Racial Climate ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
New Era ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
The University ◽  
University Officials

This epilogue details how, in 2006, Michigan voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution that banned affirmative action in public institutions. One way to read Proposal 2 is as the culmination of a conservative backlash to affirmative action at the University of Michigan (UM). There is no doubt that these anti-affirmative action efforts have made racial inclusion more difficult at UM. But UM officials have long crafted visions of inclusion that accommodated and defended racial inequality. Proposal 2 did not create racial disparities and a poor racial climate at UM—it simply exacerbated existing problems. In the wake of Proposal 2, black enrollment began to decline, and the racial climate worsened. Battles on campus since 2006 have revolved around the university's culpability in racial retrenchment. University officials have deployed racial innocence, blaming the constitutional amendment for any problems on campus. Black students, however, have tried to hold UM accountable for its part in the new era of retrenchment, despite Proposal 2.

Controlling Inclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 104-143
Author(s):  
Matthew Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Black Students ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Racial Climate ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Institutional Mission ◽  
Admissions Policies ◽  
Racial Inclusion ◽  
The University

This chapter assesses how the five-year period between 1970 and 1975 changed the University of Michigan (UM). The university implemented the most ambitious affirmative action admissions policies in its history, increased the number of black officials on campus, and redistributed millions of dollars to inclusion initiatives. At the same time, UM administrators deployed new and old techniques to co-opt black campus activism. They added new disciplinary codes to deter confrontational activism; expanded the inclusion bureaucracy; and fought against black, Asian American, Chicano, and Native American activists who tried to build on the Black Action Movement (BAM) concessions. By 1975, BAM's revolutionary vision that called for a new institutional mission was nowhere to be found. The university still had not reached the 10 percent black enrollment goal, and the racial climate was still creating obstacles for black students on campus. The fact that black campus activists were not able to mobilize a campus strike that rivaled BAM's in response to these failures signaled that executive administrators had a firm grasp on racial inclusion once again.

Sustaining Racial Retrenchment

2020 ◽  
pp. 164-187
Author(s):  
Matthew Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Black Students ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Student Body ◽  
New Policies ◽  
The University ◽  
Corporate Model

This chapter describes how the University of Michigan (UM) leaders fought to preserve the new affirmative action policies. In this context, diversity—the idea that a racially heterogeneous student body improved education and prepared students for a multiracial democracy and global economy—became a tool to defend and sustain the new policies. Diversity helped sever the purpose of affirmative action from addressing the inequality rooted in cities, offered ambiguous goals that helped officials avoid accountability, and advanced administrators' interests in introducing a corporate model for the university. The diversity ideal, in other words, did not spark racial retrenchment. Instead, diversity became a tool to sustain the university's policies of retrenchment. Administrators still had to work to retain control over the meaning of diversity and ensure it supported the new policies. When diversity took hold among administrators, black students and their allies tried to employ diversity language to undermine the policies of retrenchment. Administrators ensured that never happened.

Who Belongs in the University?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Schryer
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The University ◽  
Welfare Politics

This chapter focuses on Philip Roth’s late 1990s novel, The Human Stain, arguing that the novel draws an analogy between the university and the Democratic Party. In early War on Poverty–era novels like Portnoy’s Complaint, Roth developed an antiprocess conception of art and welfare politics, one that conceived of works of art and public institutions as products that require audiences to appreciate them on their own terms. In The Human Stain, Roth extends this conception to the postmodern academy, using it to criticize multicultural education and affirmative action. Linking the university and New Deal liberal coalition, Roth insists that both are under assault by cultural and ideological outsiders. This analogy leads Roth to embrace a strategic conservatism, one that echoes the politics of Bill Clinton, whose impeachment trial recurs throughout The Human Stain.

The Origins of Affirmative Action

2020 ◽  
pp. 40-66
Author(s):  
Matthew Johnson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Black Activism ◽  
Workplace Justice ◽  
Federal Contracts ◽  
The University

This chapter examines the origins of affirmative action in the University of Michigan (UM). The pressure that led to the university's first undergraduate affirmative action admissions program came from a federal bureaucrat and the president of the United States, who were both responding to black activism for workplace justice. Yet this pressure never threatened UM with the loss of lucrative federal contracts or potential court cases. UM adopted affirmative action in 1964 because people at the top of the institution wanted the university to change. This environment of weak federal coercion created a perfect recipe for co-optation. After the initial dose of federal pressure, UM officials took control of the purpose and character of affirmative action, creating a program that preserved the university's long-established priorities and values. It is no surprise, then, that between 1964 and 1967, black enrollment rose from only 0.5 to 1.65 percent of the student body. However, given that African Americans constituted more than 10 percent of the state population, affirmative action made a small dent in the racial disparities at UM.

Confirmative Action

2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (02) ◽  
pp. 565-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lani Guinier
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Law School ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Admission Policies ◽  
Conventional Test ◽  
The University ◽  
The Way

Lempert, Chambers, and Adams's study of the careers of three generations of students of color admitted to the University of Michigan Law School fills several important gaps in our knowledge about the consequences and implications of affirmative action protocols in law school admission. First, it provides empirical data for the argument that conventional test-based admission policies both mask and support deep flaws in the way we allocate opportunity and privilege.

Rollin'On the River: Race, Elite Schools, and the Equality Paradox

2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (02) ◽  
pp. 527-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Wilkins
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Law School ◽  
Professional School ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
The People ◽  
Majority Students ◽  
Value Diversity ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University

Lempert, Chambers, and Adams's superb new study of the careers of minority and white graduates of the University of Michigan Law School will come as welcome news to those who value diversity on this nation's college and professional school campuses. Alongside the Bowen-Box study (1998), to which the authors link their work, the Michigan data provide powerful evidence of the many benefits of affirmative action for both minority and majority students, as well as for a constituency that is often overlooked in the debate over affirmative action—namely, the people these aspiring professionals are intended to serve. More important, the authors' careful analysis reveals what many have long suspected. LSAT scores and undergraduate GPAs “seem to have no relationship to success after law school, whether success is measured by earned income, career satisfaction, or service contributions” (Lempert, Chambers, and Adams 2000, 401).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document