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CNN Live Today
Mixed Ruling on Affirmative Action
Aired June 23, 2003 - 11:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Let's revisit the topic of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that came down, split decisions, involving the University of Michigan admissions policy. The court gave a 5-4 thumbs up to the law school admissions policy on affirmative action, but gave a thumbs down to the undergrad affirmative action program.
Let's bring in our Jeff Flock who is at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, And you got direct response on this undergraduate affirmative action program, don't you?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just starting to get the first reaction now from the university administration. I've got Terence McDonald, who is dean of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, the school that was mentioned in the lawsuit.
You obviously thought about this an eventuality, which your point system needs to go away. What are you going to do about it?
TERENCE MCDONALD, UNIV. OF MICHIGAN: Well, this is a great victory for us today in upholding the principle that diversity is a compelling interest for American higher education. The Supreme Court has ratified the principle that we have always followed in this case. They're going to instruct us on the technique for achieving that goal, but we can easily take that instruction.
FLOCK: Well, now, your law school program, obviously, that seems to work according to the justices.
MCDONALD: Correct.
FLOCK: Can you do what they do? Because they look at every single student. Can you do that with 25,000 applications, if that's what you get?
MCDONALD: We already have 20 admission's counselors who do look at every single student. Therefore...
FLOCK: Not in the same way as the law school?
MCDONALD: Correct. Correct. But our process already involves looking at every single application. It would be quite easy for us to tailor our process to meet the demands of the court.
FLOCK: As to the point system, it was a 150-point system, right?
MCDONALD: Correct. FLOCK: Twenty points I get if I'm Hispanic or black, correct?
MCDONALD: Among other things, including socioeconomic difference, including coming from schools with a certain kind of curriculum, yes.
FLOCK: But they're saying this point system does not work. So you're going to scrap the point system?
MCDONALD: We're going to be looking into the decision and seeing what the court has instructed us to do. They've asked us to be more narrowly tailored, and we can easily accomplish that. We'll be putting our faculty to work on that soon.
FLOCK: Before you get away, I want to try to pin you down as best I can, and I know this decision's so fresh. What do you do? How in nuts and bolts do you actually take race into account without either a point system or some other thing?
MCDONALD: We'll be looking for the specific instructions from the court on that, of course. But in reality, as I said before, our admission procedure already is quite a lot individually focused, and it's not going to be hard for us to do this.
FLOCK: Mr. McDonald, I appreciate the time, sir. Thank you for the quick reaction to these historic rulings on the part of the Supreme Court essentially saying that the way they do it at the law school here is OK, but the way they did at undergrad is not. They're back to the drawing board on that, as you can see.
That's the latest from Ann Arbor. Fredricka, back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jeff Flock, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 23, 2003 - 11:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Let's revisit the topic of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that came down, split decisions, involving the University of Michigan admissions policy. The court gave a 5-4 thumbs up to the law school admissions policy on affirmative action, but gave a thumbs down to the undergrad affirmative action program.
Let's bring in our Jeff Flock who is at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, And you got direct response on this undergraduate affirmative action program, don't you?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just starting to get the first reaction now from the university administration. I've got Terence McDonald, who is dean of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, the school that was mentioned in the lawsuit.
You obviously thought about this an eventuality, which your point system needs to go away. What are you going to do about it?
TERENCE MCDONALD, UNIV. OF MICHIGAN: Well, this is a great victory for us today in upholding the principle that diversity is a compelling interest for American higher education. The Supreme Court has ratified the principle that we have always followed in this case. They're going to instruct us on the technique for achieving that goal, but we can easily take that instruction.
FLOCK: Well, now, your law school program, obviously, that seems to work according to the justices.
MCDONALD: Correct.
FLOCK: Can you do what they do? Because they look at every single student. Can you do that with 25,000 applications, if that's what you get?
MCDONALD: We already have 20 admission's counselors who do look at every single student. Therefore...
FLOCK: Not in the same way as the law school?
MCDONALD: Correct. Correct. But our process already involves looking at every single application. It would be quite easy for us to tailor our process to meet the demands of the court.
FLOCK: As to the point system, it was a 150-point system, right?
MCDONALD: Correct. FLOCK: Twenty points I get if I'm Hispanic or black, correct?
MCDONALD: Among other things, including socioeconomic difference, including coming from schools with a certain kind of curriculum, yes.
FLOCK: But they're saying this point system does not work. So you're going to scrap the point system?
MCDONALD: We're going to be looking into the decision and seeing what the court has instructed us to do. They've asked us to be more narrowly tailored, and we can easily accomplish that. We'll be putting our faculty to work on that soon.
FLOCK: Before you get away, I want to try to pin you down as best I can, and I know this decision's so fresh. What do you do? How in nuts and bolts do you actually take race into account without either a point system or some other thing?
MCDONALD: We'll be looking for the specific instructions from the court on that, of course. But in reality, as I said before, our admission procedure already is quite a lot individually focused, and it's not going to be hard for us to do this.
FLOCK: Mr. McDonald, I appreciate the time, sir. Thank you for the quick reaction to these historic rulings on the part of the Supreme Court essentially saying that the way they do it at the law school here is OK, but the way they did at undergrad is not. They're back to the drawing board on that, as you can see.
That's the latest from Ann Arbor. Fredricka, back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jeff Flock, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
