Bills would allow race to be factor in admissions

Kayla Webley
2005-02-10
The Daily

The Washington State Legislature is considering a pair of bills that would allow college admissions offials statewide to use race as a factor.

The consideration of race in college admissions has been prohibited in Washington State since Initiative 200 passed in 1998.

If passed, Senate Bill 5575 and House Bill 1586 would align the UW with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grutter v. the University of Michigan, which ruled that colleges pursuing the educational benefits a diverse student body can provide are not in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.

"The Supreme Court ruled that diversity was a comprehensive state interest and it was therefore in the university's best interest to be allowed to consider race in a limited way in admissions decisions," said Tim Washburn, assistant vice president for enrollment services.

The ruling also stated that it is unconstitutional for a college to use quotas or an automatic point system to aid under-represented minority applicants.

According to Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, who authored and co-sponsors the Senate bill, the proposed legislation only allows administrators to consider race as one of many factors taken into consideration by admissions officials.

"College administrators wanted the flexibility in making admissions decisions that they believe they had not had under the I-200 law," said Kohl-Welles. "This would not be a return to allowing racial preferences. We just want to respect colleges and universities who would like to have more flexibility to use race ... as a factor among every other factor imaginable."

A new policy

"We have a good idea of what we could change in order to consider race in a limited way and still meet the constitutionality of the Supreme Court decision," said Washburn.

The legislation leaves it up to the universities to implement admission programs as they wish, so long as the policies do not use quotas or targets.

According to Washburn, the UW would change the admissions policy so every freshman applicant would be comprehensibly reviewed by the admissions officials, who would look at all application materials, as opposed to the current policy which admits the "upper half" of applicants based solely on test scores and grade point averages.

The "lower half" of applicants are reviewed comprehensibly so additional factors, such as an applicant's socioeconomic background and whether or not the applicant is a first-generation college student, can be considered, said Washburn.

The new policy would also allow the UW to consider race in this process.

Sen. Phyllis Kenney, D-Seattle, said she co-sponsored the House bill because she thinks universities should be allowed to consider race along with the many other factors weighing in on an applicant's admission.

"Under I-200 they can recruit but they cannot in any way shape or form consider it even if everything else is equal," said Kenney. "They have the opportunity not to use race or ethnicity ... in admissions but they cannot even take that into consideration ... without feeling like they are in violation of the law."

Precious Aure, ASUW director of diversity efforts, said although the legislation will not necessarily increase or decrease diversity on campus, it would give students a chance to show how their ethnicities could positively affect the UW.

"When adding this to the process students can write about race and it will give students a chance to really say why they want to come to the UW and how they will benefit from coming here," said Aure. "It'll give everyone a chance to expand more on what benefits they will bring, what they can gain and then give back to the community."

Lobbyists support bills

UW lobbyists and administrators will be testifying today and tomorrow in favor of the proposed legislation.

"The University is in strong support of both bills. We testified in favor of the bills last year and will do the same this year," said UW lobbyist Randy Hodgins. "Any additional tools we can be granted under state law to enrich the diversity of the college campus is a good thing and we see this bill as furthering that objective."

UW student lobbyist Jamie Corning said he viewed the legislation as a means of allowing the UW to improve its campus community by increasing under-represented student populations.

"Making sure that we have diversity on campus is something we need to do a much better job of," he said.

Not to say there isn't opposition

Nick Dayton, president of the UW College Republicans, will also be trekking to Olympia Friday -- to testify against the bill.

"I feel that any program that allows race to be used as a factor is inherently racist because it is judging someone by their race," said Dayton. "It is wrong for the government to have racist policies."

Dayton's testimony will include statistics showing, on average, people who benefit from affirmative action policies are in the high-income bracket, not the low-income bracket the policies are essentially designed to help, he said.

But if passed, the legislation would help keep some of the "best" minority students in the state, said Kohl-Welles.

"There is nothing in this bill that would strike any part of the I-200 law," she said. "There are no racial set asides, and quotas will still not be allowed."