Blacks Hold Their Own Under the New Race-Neutral Admissions System at the University of Michigan

Last November voters in Michigan overwhelmingly supported a referendum called the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative which banned the use of race in admissions decisions at the University of Michigan and other state universities.

It was feared that the race-neutral admissions policies of the university mandated by the new law would lead to a significant reduction in the number of black students at the University of Michigan. But the good news is that this is not the case.

This spring the number of applications from African Americans for admission to undergraduate programs at the University of Michigan was up 7 percent from a year ago. Preliminary data on this fall’s entering class shows that the number of black students who had mailed in an admissions deposit by May 20 was 2.3 percent higher than at the same point in 2006.

It must be noted that in 2006, when the public referendum on affirmative action admissions was a political hot potato, the number of black students who enrolled at the university dropped to 330 students compared to 443 the year before. Even though this year’s number appears not to have declined further, black first-year enrollments at the University of Michigan will still be well below their historical highs.