Post Proposal 2 Update

Since passage of Prop. 2, enrollment of underrepresented undergraduate students at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus has dropped from 12.6% in 2006 to 9.1% in 2009, a 28% decrease, despite increases in applications and acceptances. The UM director of undergraduate admissions attributes the decline to the University’s disadvantage in competing with colleges and universities that are still able to offer scholarships that take into account race, ethnicity or gender.

African American enrollments at UCLA—which is located in the county with the second largest African American population in the country—dropped for ten years following passage of Prop. 209, from 6.3% in 1996 to 2.2% in 2006. The number of African American students enrolled in 2006 was the lowest since 1973. Recently, UCLA has doubled its African American enrollment to about 4.5% beginning in 2007 and continuing in 2009.

In April 2007, the California Court of Appeals ruled that, in light of an extensively documented history of discrimination, a San Francisco ordinance requiring outreach to women- and minority-owned contractors may be required by federal equal protection law, opening the door to reinstatement of some forms of affirmative action.

Additional links:

Leadership Conference for Civil Rights
Americans for a Fair Chance