President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20502
Dear President Bush:

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court announced that it intends to take up two University of Michigan cases that raise the critically important question of whether institutions of higher learning can weigh race as one among many factors in admissions decisions so that their student bodies are diverse and inclusive.

I am writing to implore you to stand with those of us who fervently believe in opportunity and inclusion. More specifically, I urge you to instruct the Justice Department and the Solicitor General to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bakke decision, which has been the law of the land for a quarter century. The admissions procedures crafted by the University of Michigan and the law school are carefully crafted to advance society’s compelling interest in inclusion without offending the U.S. Constitution.

Affirmative action is both a philosophy of inclusion and a set of tools for accomplishing that objective. It’s important to remind ourselves that the philosophical and constitutional debate over whether ethnicity should be considered in admissions decision isn’t really an issue vis-à-vis colleges and universities that have roughly as many openings as they have applicants. The controversy arises in cases where highly selective institutions have many more qualified applicants than openings and they must determine which factors to weigh in deciding whom to admit.

Selective colleges and universities in jurisdictions where race no longer can be considered have suffered sharp reductions in the enrollment of minorities from which they’ve yet to recover. That is true of the University of California at Berkeley and UCLA in the wake of Proposition 209; and it’s also true of the University of Texas at Austin in the aftermath of the Hopwood decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for that region of the country. Minority applicants, those student bodies at large, the institutions themselves, the states where they are located and society at large are all losers as a result of diminished inclusion and diversity on those campuses.

In the Bakke case, the U.S. Supreme Court previously ruled that it’s permissible under the Constitution for colleges and universities to consider race as one among many factors, not just to combat discrimination, but as a way to promote diversity. I ask that you and your administration urge the Court to stand unequivocally by this precedent which has served our country well and which will continue to do so in the years ahead.

In the view of the National Urban League, promoting inclusion rises to the threshold of a compelling state interest that justifies the use of race as one of many factors – albeit not as the sole or decisive factor -- in allocating educational opportunity among those who are qualified.
The evolving and inexorable demographic change underway in this country provides all the moral and economic rationale we need to view inclusion as a compelling public interest. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the middle of this century the American population will be even more diverse ethnically.

Admissions policies like those at the University of Michigan and its law school clearly have contributed to advancing the preparation and productivity of minorities. The proof of impact is found in the dramatically changed ethnic composition of college campuses and corporate workplaces. There\'s simply no denying the striking progress that minorities made over the past generation in entering the American mainstream since the advent of affirmative action.

Back in 1961, 134,000 black students attended predominantly white colleges and universities around the country. Since then there’s been an almost ten-fold increase, to 1.2 million, in the number of African-American undergraduates at such schools.

Much the same is true of the white-collar labor market. The work force of every Fortune 500 corporation is vastly more integrated today than it was in 1954, the year of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawing school segregation. Blacks in big companies back then seldom rose above secretary or messenger.

These education and employment gains help explain the marked growth in the black middle class. To those opponents of affirmative action who say that the poor and working people haven\\\'t benefited from inclusion, consider again the surge in black students on previously white campuses. These ambitious young people didn\\\'t arrive on campus with silver spoons in their suitcases. They\\\'re largely the offspring of working class and low-income families.

The same is true of the mushrooming black middle class. These families obviously didn\\\'t descend there from the miniscule black upper class. They ascended from more modest circumstances due to individual drive and higher educational attainment. But thanks, also, to the determination of universities and employers to include them utilizing admissions policies like those at the University of Michigan.

This country’s economy will increasingly be carried on the backs of minority workers, entrepreneurs, taxpayers and customers. The civic life of our nation will depend increasingly on a literate and engaged populace of color who are well equipped to exercise the ballot and meet the obligations of citizenship. To America’s minorities will increasingly fall the burden of supporting the Social Security, Medicare and private pension benefits of the aging, largely white baby boom generation.

It’s axiomatic that the better educated these future citizens are, the more robust our economy, the more harmonious our society and the more secure the entire population will be. In my judgment, this is the essence of a compelling public interest.

Colleges and universities receive tax exemptions and direct subsidies to serve a public purpose. As a taxpayer, I would argue that these institutions exist at the sufferance of and with the support of my fellow taxpayers to equip students to meet the myriad needs of their home states and of society at large for capable workers, energetic entrepreneurs, able corporate managers and executives, talented public servants and involved citizens in the many sectors and communities that comprise our society.

These institutions of higher learning send graduates into all walks of life – big corporations, small businesses, government, public and parochial education and the nonprofit sector. Into suburbs, downtown business districts and inner cities alike. That is why these schools should have the discretion to craft their admissions policies and student bodies in ways that best fulfill their institutional missions.

As Jeffrey Lehman, the dean of Michigan’s law school, once wrote on the Op Ed page of The New York Times, his institution does not use quotas or set-asides. Nor does it admit applicants who aren’t qualified and cannot handle the academic work there. It’s also noteworthy that according to Dean Lehman, the law school admits a smaller percentage of black applicants than the proportion of blacks in the U.S. population. Plus, it rejects a higher percentage of African-American applicants than white applicants.

Universities that practice constitutionally permissible forms of affirmative action adhere to none of the practices -- like quotas, set-asides and acceptance of the unqualified -- that opponents of affirmative action find objectionable. That is why the principles governing admissions policies like those at Michigan deserve your enthusiastic support and should be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

With the end of the millennium upon us, it\\\'s time for America to get on with its future. Sustaining and strengthening our commitment to inclusion is key to whether we successfully manage the transition in the 21st century into the most robustly diverse, yet cohesive democracy in the history of humankind.

Inclusion is too vital to America’s future to be left entirely to chance. Common sense dictates that we keep the doors of higher education wide open for promising young African Americans and Latinos. As A. Bartlett Giamatti, the late president of Yale University and Commissioner of Major League Baseball, once put it so compellingly, universities should be tributaries to society, not sanctuaries from it.

Thank you, Mr. President, for your consideration.

Best wishes,

Hugh B. Price
President