Maintaining Access and Opportunity

Background

In November 2006, Michigan passed Proposal 2, a constitutional amendment banning affirmative action based on race, gender, ethnicity, color or national origin in public employment, public education and government contracting. California passed a similar amendment in 1996, and Washington adopted a law in 1998.

In 2008, Californian Ward Connerly and other supporters of such initiatives organized campaigns in Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arizona and Missouri; only the Nebraska effort was successful.

Current Activities

Now, Connerly and his supporters are mounting 2010 campaigns in Arizona and Missouri, while exploring the feasibility of seeking amendments in a number of other Great Plains and western states.

Prop. 209, the California constitutional amendment, has had extensive, well-documented, negative consequences for women, African Americans, Latino/as, and Native Americans and, therefore, for the state as a whole. Since it is virtually identical to Proposal 2 in Michigan, we can expect similar results here, unless we are creative, vigilant, and determined to learn from previous experience.

The University has also developed a diversity website with additional information.

CEW is joining with partners at the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, the Imagine Fund and the Michigan Women’s Commission to bring together researchers from across the state to identify research in process and catalyze new efforts to monitor the impact of the Michigan amendment.

Maintaining Access and Opportunity

While the anti-affirmative action initiatives have taken away an important tool for achieving diversity, other tools are left. States, institutions, and citizens have acted to preserve access and opportunity in a number of ways. Washington and Michigan declared that targeted outreach remains legal. Colleges and universities have redesigned their admissions and scholarship or fellowship criteria to emphasize such factors as socioeconomic status, whether a student is the first in her or his family to attend college, geographic region, overcoming adversity, leadership, special talents, distance traveled (student achievement in the context of available resources), direction headed (what the student intends to do with the degree), and contribution to diversity, broadly construed. Private entities, which are not governed by the initiatives, have stepped forward to provide scholarships designed to promote diversity. The state of Washington created a program to support small businesses and continues outreach and education programs for women- and minority-owned enterprises.

At the University of Michigan, the Diversity Blueprints Task Force, comprising faculty, staff, students and community members, has issued an extensive set of recommendations. The Center for the Education of Women will continue to do all we can to ensure access, equity and excellence at the University of Michigan and throughout the state.

Additional Resources

Association of American Colleges and Universities offers many diversity initiatives, including DiversityWeb, an interactive resource hub for higher education.