Students'
views mixed on admissions decision Students'
views mixed on admissions decision
Some back ruling; others say you can't 'manufacture diversity'
By John Bebow / The Detroit News Donna Terek / The Detroit News
Wednesday, May 15, 2002
ANN ARBOR -- Growing up in a poor neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica, Martin Sybblis occasionally ducked bullets and listened closely to the words of national hero and reggae legend Bob Marley.
"Emancipate yourself," he heard Marley sing, and he quoted those words in the personal statement required for the University of Michigan Law School.
"I think they realized I would bring something different to the classroom," Sybblis, 23, said. "I probably wouldn't have even been considered for admission based on test scores alone."
Sybblis said the significance of the court decision was very simple. "This means opportunity," he said.
Tuesday's announcement awakened a campus largely in hibernation for the summer. Few students opened books in the magnificent reading room of the granite and limestone Legal Research Building.
"This sounds like good news for the law school," said Yan Zhang, a 28-year-old native of China, as he worked on a paper for the student law review after just completing his first year.
"The law school tries to teach you to reflect on your assumptions constantly. A diversified student body really produces a good background for us to challenge our assumptions."
Tuesday's action "appears to give the Supreme Court a chance to answer some of these issues," said soon-to-be-second-year law student Jon-Michael Wheat, 23.
"I'm surprised," Wheat said, a white native of Texas. "I think the goal of a diverse student body is admirable, but I thought achieving that goal (through the admissions process) would be difficult if not impossible given the previous court opinions."
The decision overturned a March 2001 ruling by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman. He struck down the law school's admissions policy, saying its criteria were not clearly defined and placed too much value on the race of applicants.
An afternoon rally featuring Jesse Jackson and several dozen students and affirmative action activists briefly stirred the otherwise quiet Michigan Union across State Street from the law school. Two dissenters on Rollerblades held signs on the front steps.
"Affirmative action is racism in action," said the placard held by James Wilson, a 21-year-old white undergraduate from Minneapolis who edits the conservative Michigan Review campus newspaper.
"You cannot manufacture diversity and end segregation on campus because in the end you get manufactured segregation," Wilson said, noting that nearly every group of ethnic-law students had divided themselves into separate professional societies.
You can reach John Bebow at (313)222-2548 or jbebow @detnews.com.
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