Michigan Voters Will Decide If the State’s Flagship University Can Continue to Consider Race in Its Admissions Decisions

The Michigan Supreme Court has ordered that the so-called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative appear on the ballot this November. The public referendum will ask voters to approve an amendment to the state constitution which will prohibit the consideration of race in admissions decisions at the University of Michigan and other state-operated colleges and universities. Opponents of the measure had asked the court to throw the measure off the ballot because they alleged that the validating signatures had been collected fraudulently.

The outcome of this ballot initiative is of great importance to blacks. The University of Michigan has been a stronghold of black higher education. The vast majority of its African-American graduates entered the university under affirmative action rules.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.