As the executive director of the National Association of Scholars, politics preceptor Bradford Wilson is at the helm of one of the leading organizations opposing the University of Michigan's race-based admission policies.
Though not vocally against Princeton's own policies, Wilson finds himself arrayed against the University's support of affirmative action.
Though the NAS filed briefs in the cases against the University of Michigan heard by the Supreme Court yesterday, the University filed a brief supporting it. The cases were brought by white applicants rejected from the university's undergraduate and law school programs who allege they were denied their constitutional right of equal protection.
Wilson explained the NAS position in an interview Monday, on the eve of the oral arguments.
Based in Princeton, the NAS became involved in the Michigan cases on a matter of principle.
"What we saw at stake in the Michigan litigation was a very fundamental principle of American constitutional and academic life, and that principle, we believe, is that students ought to be treated as individuals and not as members of racial groups by public institutions — for that matter, in private institutions as well," he said.
Wilson said it's important not to misconstrue the NAS position as hostile to racial diversity. He draws a distinction between racial diversity and racial preferences.
"One can think that racial diversity is indeed a plus on a college campus and still say that racial preferences — because of their discriminatory nature — are not fair," Wilson said.
How did the NAS help the case for the plaintiffs?
By unleashing its social scientists to delve deeper into Michigan's claim that racial diversity produces significant educational benefits, and by hiring survey research firms to confirm — or debunk — Michigan's avowal that there is a consensus among educators that racial diversity achieved by racial preferences is legitimate.
The NAS found the report used by the University of Michigan to support its claim that more racial diversity is educationally beneficial to be seriously flawed, Wilson said.
He said the report's author, Patricia Gurin, psychology and women's studies professor at Michigan, never took a look at "the numbers."
"What she looks at is whether students report that they took ethnic studies classes, whether students report that they have friends of the opposite race, whether students report that they've had diversity experiences," Wilson said. "She's never bothered to ask what the racial makeup was of the ethnic studies classes or even the ethnic enrollment, racial enrollment, at the university itself."
Wilson said Michigan's second claim fares no better than its first.
The survey research firms hired by the NAS found university faculty and students, in particular, overwhelmingly opposed to racial diversity achieved by race-based affirmative action admission policies, Wilson said.
Reexamining data
Wilson said the NAS challenge to Michigan's empirical claims does not bode well for Michigan's case. He said the Supreme Court has some empirically-minded people on the bench, and they will demand the data before making a decision.
If the data are so flawed, why is Michigan relying on them as evidence? According to Wilson, it is the only avenue left open to Michigan.
He said the court has been clear in cases thus far involving educational institutions below the college level: Racial preferences may only be used to remedy identifiable past discrimination. But no one, not even Michigan, is claiming it has a history of discrimination, he said.
"Given that the court has been rather insistent about state institutions needing to have a history of discrimination before they can use race to correct that unjust past, Michigan is reaching for the only goal of legislation or — it's not legislation in this case — goal of public policy that's still on the table, and that's diversity as a means to educational quality," Wilson said.
Wilson emphasized that though Princeton is a private university, it still has a stake in the controversy surrounding Michigan, a public university.
Fourteenth Amendment
The 14th Amendment guarantees that all state agencies must observe the Constitution's equal protection guarantee. Though Princeton is not a state agency and not governed directly by the 14th Amendment, it is subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This legislation prohibits any institution that receives federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race.
In the landmark 1978 case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Supreme Court decided that the nondiscrimination provision of the Civil Rights Act meant whatever the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment meant. This indirectly applied the 14th Amendment to private universities.
"So if the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment forbids Michigan's use of race in student admissions, then the inference will be that that's also true of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as it applies to private universities. So that's the legal reason why private universities have submitted amicus briefs on behalf of Michigan in this case. Those who have racially preferential admissions policies want to preserve them," Wilson said.
If the court rules against Michigan, the NAS will work to ensure that universities respect the decision.
Otherwise, Wilson said, the NAS will continue to advocate race-neutral admissions policies through the 4,500 members that make up the association.
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