OSU joins U-M's team in support of affirmative action OSU joins U-M's team in support of affirmative action
August 21, 2000
Detroit Free Press
BY TREVOR COLEMAN FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER
It's not every day that you hear the president of Ohio State University rooting for the University of Michigan to win the "big one." But this "big one" isn't a football game. It's something far more important to the future of both universities as leaders in higher education: U-M's battle against two lawsuits that would ban the use of affirmative action as an admissions tool. U-M is expected to go to court in October to defend its undergraduate admissions policy against charges that it is discriminatory against whites. The similar case against the U-M law school is scheduled for trial on Jan. 15 -- Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.
Ohio State president William (Britt) Kirwan is not just rooting for U-M. He's standing shoulder to shoulder with the Maize and Blue in defense of the affirmative action policy. "Ohio State uses the exact same policy in its admissions process as U-M -- based on the Bakke decision," Kirwan told the Free Press when he was in town on OSU alumni business. "And we are 100 percent committed to Bakke." He was referring to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1978 Bakke decision, striking down the use of strict quotas in admissions, but allowing race to be a factor. Kirwan had Ohio's attorney general file a friend of the court brief on behalf of OSU in support of U-M.
"I know how important it is to the University of Michigan," he said. "But more broadly, a negative decision for Michigan would have implications for all the universities in the states within the 6th Circuit, which includes Ohio State University." Most colleges and universities carefully recrafted admissions policies following the Bakke model. Since the Reagan administration, however, a cabal of conservative lawyers -- many who worked in the Reagan and Bush administrations -- have relentlessly sought to eradicate hard-fought civil rights gains including affirmative action, minority voting rights, women's and gay rights.
Among the leaders in this effort is the Center for Individual Rights, a Washington, D.C., law firm that is representing the plaintiffs in the U-M suits. It has a long history of opposing affirmative action, black voting rights and the anti-discrimination efforts of civil rights organizations. Kirwan said the real aim of groups like CIR is to reverse many of the gains of the civil rights movement. Bakke is a major target because of its symbolic value and the critical role it has played in promoting equal opportunity. "This is really a frontal assault on the Bakke decision," he said. "It is a coordinated effort and very troubling to me personally, and potentially enormously harmful to our society."
Lee Bollinger, president of U-M agreed. "It's important to realize the Bakke decision is reflective of mainstream American values," he said. "It is as fundamental as Brown vs. the Board of Education." The importance of the case has been demonstrated by the widespread outpouring of support for U-M, Bollinger said. Allies include former president and U-M alum Gerald Ford, former Gov. William Milliken, major companies including General Motors Corp., and virtually every university in the country. Kirwan, cochairman of the Diversity Initiative, an ad hoc working group of academic and business leaders associated with the American Council on Education, noted that support for diversity is not simply found among the academic and business elite.
A poll done for the American Council on Education and released last week found that 88 percent of Americans believe it is important to have students of different races, cultures, and backgrounds in higher education. Seventy-five percent of the public says colleges should be allowed to act to ensure a diverse student body; 81 percent think it is important for businesses to have employees of different races, cultures, and backgrounds. "These results show that as a nation, we believe that diversity in education and business is good for America," Kirwan said. "Further, Americans believe overwhelmingly that colleges should be allowed to do what it takes to ensure a diverse body."
As an Ohio State alum -- thoroughly indoctrinated in the long, intense rivalry with that school "up north" -- it was a pleasant surprise to see Kirwan coming so vigorously to U-M's defense. Kirwan and Bollinger, however, both realize this isn't a game. Neither wants minority enrollment at his school to plummet as it has at the University of California at Berkley. So the president of Ohio State is rooting hard for the Wolverines. The Buckeyes will feel a U-M loss deeply. They would celebrate a U-M victory -- as long as its not on the third Saturday in November.
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