U-M suits have a victor: Bollinger U-M suits have a victor: Bollinger
A novel strategy helps him to Harvard's gates
March 2, 2001
BY MARYANNE GEORGE FREE PRESS ANN ARBOR BUREAU
Within months of taking the helm at the University of Michigan, Lee Bollinger was facing two explosive lawsuits against U-M's race-conscious admissions policies. But the suits, which could have been his worst nightmare, instead may catapult Bollinger into the nation's top college job.
Bollinger's aggressive and successful defense of campus diversity on its educational merits brought him to the national stage. One of his key advisers was Harvard University President Neil Rudenstine, a well-known champion of diversity and the man Bollinger may succeed. It's an irony that U-M loyalists could do without. Bollinger is among a handful of finalists -- and by some accounts the favorite -- to succeed Rudenstine.
A decision could come as early as this week. It's not just Bollinger's legal strategy that makes him attractive to Harvard. He's an accomplished fund-raiser who understands both life sciences and Shakespeare and has succeeded in bringing new initiatives to U-M. But those academic initiatives alone probably wouldn't have brought Bollinger to the gates of Harvard.
It was his novel approach to fighting two affirmative-action lawsuits against the undergraduate and law schools for using race as a factor in admissions. As soon as he became president of U-M in February 1997 -- nine months before any lawsuits were filed -- Bollinger, a lawyer and former U-M law school dean, decided on a strategy to defend the university. U-M would take the approach that students of all races learned more on a campus that had a diverse student body.
U-M would explain the value of diversity in tangible terms, using studies and reports from U-M scholars and nationally recognized experts such as former Harvard President Derek Bok and former Princeton President William Bowen. And Bollinger and his executive team would wage a public opinion campaign to explain the value of diversity to business and political leaders. Bollinger took his defense to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and local newspapers.
He marshaled the support of heavyweights like former President Gerald Ford, who wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times, and General Motors Corp., which wrote a brief supporting the university's position. To date that strategy has worked. In December, U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan ruled that U-M's current undergraduate race-conscious admissions policy is legal, but a policy used from 1995 to 1998 was not.
In his decision, Duggan noted that U-M presented "solid evidence regarding the educational benefits that flow from a racially and ethnically diverse student body." U-M awaits a ruling from U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman in a second case against the law school. It was filed by white students who claimed they were denied admissions in favor of less-qualified minority students. The decision in the undergraduate case is being appealed to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
U-M law school dean Jeff Lehman said Bollinger's reaction to the affirmative-action debate illustrates his willingness to wade into murky waters. "Lee is happiest when he is struggling with a genuinely complex issue," Lehman said. Lehman may understand better than most Harvard's attraction to Bollinger: He chaired the U-M presidential search committee that nominated Bollinger in 1996.
People close to the Harvard presidential search committee have told the Boston Globe that most members of the panel say Bollinger, 54, has the right vision, temperament and energy to achieve their priorities: invigorating undergraduate education, leading Harvard to the forefront of science and technology research and charting the university's expansion into Boston. But choosing Bollinger as president would be a departure from tradition.
Harvard has had only two presidents -- both in the 1600s -- who did not have degrees from the university. Bollinger has degrees from the University of Oregon and Columbia Law School. The other two finalists identified by the Globe -- Harvard Provost Harvey Fineberg and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers -- have Harvard degrees. Other candidates may still be in the running, according to Globe sources.
During his 4 years as president of U-M, Bollinger has shown an ability to do many things well, simultaneously. He secured a $10-million gift from Charles Walgreen, former chief executive officer of the Walgreen pharmacy chain, to build the Walgreen Drama Center. At the same time, he launched U-M's Life Sciences Initiative, a multimillion-dollar effort to increase U-M's involvement in genetic research and other areas in conjunction with a statewide life sciences corridor project.
"Lee has the beginnings of a great legacy as U-M president," said Dr. Gilbert Omenn, U-M's executive vice president for medical affairs. "He is engaged across the whole campus ...All of us are eager for him to stay. He has an agenda for the university that will take him to the end of his career."
Bollinger's personal skills also earn him high marks. "He's a lovely man, and as the president of a major university that counts a lot," said Malcolm MacKay, managing director of Russell Reynolds Associates Inc., an executive recruiting firm in New York. MacKay identified Bollinger as a candidate for the U-M presidency in 1996 when Bollinger was provost at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. Despite his successes, he has had to make difficult, even unpopular, decisions.
After fans protested for more than a year about a controversial new yellow halo that Bollinger had approved to adorn the rim of Michigan Stadium, Bollinger decided in 1999 to remove the letters attached to the halo and paint it blue. Last winter, after a series of problems with athletic department budgets and athletes in trouble with the law, Bollinger made the decision to fire Tom Goss, U-M's first black athletic director.
Bollinger also infuriated a group of minority students who occupied the offices of Michigamua, a student honor society, for more than a month last winter. They were protesting what they said was the group's disparaging characterizations of Native Americans. Bollinger didn't press for confrontation during the sit-in.
He negotiated with students, who eventually ended the sit-in without having their demands met. Months later, a committee recommended a policy requiring all student organizations to apply for space on a regular basis. Some students said they thought Bollinger allowed the Michigamua protest to go on too long before requiring the society to relocate, said Jonathan Marcus, a U-M senior from Miami. "There was a negative sense that it was not handled well," Marcus said recently.
The resolution was, in some respects, classic Bollinger: It wasn't quick and it wasn't unilateral. "Lee is a remarkably consistent person," Lehman said. "He is disarmingly casual and at the same time intellectually intense. He's never content with an easy answer."
Contact MARYANNE GEORGE at 734-665-5600 or mageorge@freepress.com.
News and Announcements | AAD Home Page