Home Press Center Center for Equal Opportunity Posts Study on the University of Michigan’s Faulty Report

Center for Equal Opportunity Posts Study on the University of Michigan’s Faulty Report

Monday, 26 May 2003

Contact: Roger Clegg (703)421-5443 Study Details UM’s Distortion of “Diversity” Data (Sterling, Virginia) The Center for Equal Opportunity posted on its website today a study by Drs. Robert Lerner and Althea Nagai of the survey data that the University of Michigan was recently revealed to have ignored in trumpeting the benefits of “diversity” to the public and the courts in the litigation surrounding its use of racial and ethnic admission preferences.     The 1990s survey data were collected by the University of Michigan as part of its study of the impact of UM’s racial and ethnic admission preferences.  It turns out that the data were inconsistent with the rosy picture it later painted to the courts of the benefits of a “diverse” student body.  Writer and researcher Chetly Zarko used the freedom-of-information laws to obtain these data, which are analyzed in the report now prepared by Drs. Lerner and Nagai.      The amicus brief filed last January by CEO pointed out that it would be dangerous for the Supreme Court to rely on social science data purporting to “prove” improved educational outcomes as a justification for something as divisive and unfair as racial and ethnic discrimination, because such data are almost never conclusive and nearly always manipulable.  The recent revelation that UM has actually ignored and distorted data shows that CEO’s brief is correct.     Both the Lerner & Nagai study and the CEO brief are posted at www.ceousa.org.     The Center for Equal Opportunity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational organization that studies civil rights, bilingual education, and immigration issues nationwide.