Contact: David Gersten
(703)421-5443

(Sterling, Virginia) Following the news story this morning that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has received complaints about admissions discrimination at the University of Virginia, William & Mary law school, and North Carolina State University, the Virginia Association of Scholars and the Center for Equal Opportunity released today a new study of the role of race and ethnicity in admissions at the three schools. The study — written by VAS Chairman David J. Armor and based on data obtained from the schools through freedom-of-information requests — found that race played a decisive role in the admissions process at all three schools. Preferences favoring African Americans were especially prominent at the University of Virginia and William & Mary law school, and significant though weaker at North Carolina State. The study is available on request and will be posted at www.nas.org.

NAS and VAS worked with CEO in drafting the information requests, and CEO had done earlier studies (available at www.ceousa.org/edprefs.html) finding similar evidence of discrimination at the schools involved.

NAS president Steve Balch stated: “Public universities that continue to discriminate on the basis of race and ethnicity are on notice that they will not be able to do so in secret. NAS will continue to demand that the presence of such discrimination be made public for as long as it continues.”

CEO president Linda Chavez agreed. “The public has the right to know if its taxpayer-supported schools are treating students differently on account of their skin color or where their ancestors came from. And where illegal discrimination is occurring, schools are on notice that it will be uncovered and legal action will be taken.”

Today’s study provides strong evidence that the Supreme Court’s guidelines set out in the 2003 University of Michigan cases are not being followed. NAS and CEO are sending a copy of the study to the Center for Individual Rights, the litigating organization that challenged the use of admission preferences at Michigan. CEO will also share the results of the study with OCR, with whom CEO has pending complaints against William & Mary law school and North Carolina State University, based on its earlier studies. OCR is also investigating a complaint against the University of Virginia, according to a story today in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The data are for the class that entered in Fall 2003, just after the Supreme Court’s decisions that summer in the Michigan cases. Because that class had already been admitted when the decisions were handed down, VAS is now obtaining the data for the schools’ Fall 2004 entering classes, and plans to release a follow-up study.

NAS affiliates in over twenty states have filed freedom-of-information requests with public universities this year, demanding any documents that reveal how race and ethnicity are used in determining admissions. In selected cases where schools admit to using preferences, NAS has followed up by requesting raw admissions data.

NAS is America’s foremost higher education reform group. CEO is a nonprofit, Section 501(c)(3) nonpartisan research and educational organization based in Sterling, Virginia.