Dean Hartwell’s Perspective: Changing the Subject (1/16/03)

President George W. Bush 2003: criticized the University of Michigan's admissions policies as "a quota system that unfairly penalizes or rewards students based solely on their race" and "fundamentally flawed."

Candidate George W. Bush 2000: said in a presidential debate that "if affirmative action means quotas, I'm against it.” (Source: Commission on Presidential Debates)

President Bush still doesn’t get it when it comes to affirmative action.  We should not be surprised of his ignorance because he demonstrated it during that debate against Al Gore.  After the moderator and the Vice-President both asked Bush whether he supported affirmative action, he refused to give a yes or no answer.  Then he signaled to the moderator to go to the next question.

Just change the subject.  That has become a modus operandi for the Bush Administration.  Instead of acknowledging that people are losing their jobs and their money in retirement savings, President Bush been talking about Iraq.  With public opinion mounting against the use of force, Bush simply changed the subject to affirmative action by ripping the University of Michigan’s program.

According to the University of Michigan, the school uses a 150-point system. Academic factors, such as grade point average and standardized tests like the Standardized Aptitude Test (SAT), account for 110 of those points.

A prospective student may receive up to 20 additional points for one of the following: membership in an underrepresented minority group, socioeconomic disadvantage, attendance at a predominantly minority high school, athletics or another factor at the discretion of the provost.  The school allocates the remaining twenty points based on non-academic and non-racial factors such as leadership and service at school.

Where is the “quota system” at the University of Michigan’s undergraduate school?

There are no quotas in the system.  The university sets no number of acceptances for any group.  Instead, certain minority group members get extra points if few people from their minority group have gone to the university.

Those who complain about these additional points should consider the extra points white people effectively receive.  SATs, for example, test on words that people from wealthier (usually white) backgrounds would know.  A well-to-do person, for example, would more likely know the meaning of the word "scion" (offspring of a wealthy person) than someone with little money.

Also, many high schools with predominately minority students do not have special programs for academically gifted students.  Because of that, these schools do not give extra points for classes like many schools with mostly white students.

White people are also more likely to have connections to help them get into universities.  President Bush would know about that.  When he was 18, he gained entrance into Yale University because his father was an alumnus.

A reporter recently brought this fact up to Ari Fleischer, Bush’s press secretary. Fleischer's response?  He changed the subject.

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