Legal Experts Publish Higher Education Admissions Compliance Manual

Provides Guidance for Admissions Officers Following U.S. Supreme Court Decisions in University of Michigan Cases

Updated September 11, 2003: Several leading law firms have pre-released chapters of a manual entitled Preserving Diversity in Higher Education: A Manual on Admissions Policies and Procedures After the University of Michigan Decisions that provides a clear, comprehensive legal interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the University of Michigan admissions cases to assist universities and law schools around the country as they redraft their policies to comply with the June high court rulings.

"The Preserving Diversity Manual combines careful, intelligent legal analysis with practical information for campus attorneys, admissions policy makers, and the admissions professionals who carry out those admissions policies. It is an outstanding tool for colleges and universities-and their boards of trustees."
- Robert Laird, former Director of Undergraduate Admissions at UC Berkeley

"This Manual will be highly valued by the practitioners who run admission offices, the administrators who set policy and the legal departments who advise them...It will serve as an important reference as colleges and universities review their admission policies in light of the recent Supreme Court decisions regarding the use of race in college admissions."
-Bruce Walker, Director of Admissions and Vice Provost at the University of
Texas, Austin

Preserving Diversity in Higher Education: A Manual on Admissions Policies and Procedures After the University of Michigan Decisions is written by the law firms Bingham McCutchen LLP, Morrison & Foerster LLP, and Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe LLP. The first two chapters have been pre-released now, the full document will be available soon.

— For more information, read the press release here

— Download the Manual in PDF here

— Read the Manual in HTML (coming soon)

The Continuing Threat: On June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court concluded that diversity is a compelling state interest and upheld the Michigan Law School affirmative action plan. Nevertheless, opponents of affirmative action continue their assault on diversity in a campus-by-campus crusade. They twist the Court's decision and threaten future lawsuits to further their political agenda: intimidate school administrators into abandoning effective affirmative action programs in favor of ineffective race-neutral "alternatives." The spokesperson for the anti-affirmative action Center for Individual Rights recently stated:

These schools can try to finesse it and go through the crack in the door that the Court left open today and risk litigation — and there will be litigation if they do that. Or they can move toward race-neutral alternatives now. . . . We're going to have to pick a few strategic lawsuits, frankly, to put the fear of God in schools.

Your Important Role: At this stage, alumni, students, professors, and other concerned individuals must take leadership roles to preserve diversity in education. This website is designed to serve two purposes:

(1) Provide you with tools to organize and ensure that school administrators and elected officials remain committed to affirmative action; and

(2) Provide resources to create effective and legal affirmative action programs, thereby nullifying threats of litigation.

On the What to Do page, we outline some concrete steps you can take to preserve affirmative action at your school or alma mater. You can find talking points, the Court's opinions, key quotes from the opinions, a grassroots organizing kit and other tools on the Materials page. The Links page will direct you to other sites with important information. News releases and articles are on the Media page.