University of Michigan Makes Progress in Restoring Racial Diversity

In November 2006, voters in Michigan overwhelmingly approved Proposal 2, which prohibited the University of Michigan and other state universities from considering race as a positive factor in their admissions decisions. In 2005, the year before the voter referendum in Michigan, there were 443 black freshmen who made up 7.2 percent of the entering class at the University of Michigan. By 2009 there were only 290 black first-year students at the university.

This year progress has been made. There are 352 African-American freshmen on campus this year. This is an increase of more than 21 percent from a year ago. Blacks make up 5.4 percent of this year’s freshman class.

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