A nonprofit legal firm that has sued colleges over racial preferences in admissions policies is encouraging students and trustees to investigate whether their own schools violate the law.
The Center for Individual Rights (CIR) began running full-page ads in college newspapers yesterday that read: "Guilty by Admission: Nearly Every Elite College in America Violates the Law. Does Yours?"
The ad lists an Internet Web site and a toll-free number for ordering a free handbook advising students how to file a Freedom of Information Act request, how to recognize illegal recruitment practices, and where to find a lawyer if they believe they have encountered discrimination.
A slightly different version of the handbook has been prepared for college and university trustees, "who are in a position to prevent illegal discrimination in the first place" and may be held individually responsible if students' constitutional rights are violated, according to CIR senior counsel Terrence Pell.
"We think the only way to put race behind us is to put race behind us," said former U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett, who touted the guides yesterday at a press conference. ". . . Colleges are not doing that and are misleading the public about it."
One student represented at the press conference was Jessie Tompkins, a black Alabama State University undergraduate, who is suing his historically black college for discrimination.
"I am here today because I was denied a so-called `diversity' scholarship. Only white students can get this scholarship," said a tearful Mr. Tompkins. "This scholarship shows how crazy it can get when the government tries to balance things out between the races."
Katuria Smith, the lead plaintiff in a CIR lawsuit against the University of Washington Law School in St. Louis, said she was rejected despite high grades and an LSAT score in the 94th percentile. Applicants with lower grades and test scores received offers of admission because of racial preferences, she said.
"Some people claim that colleges and universities have to commit such injustices because whites have built-in social and economic advantages," said Miss Smith, who is white and grew up poor with only her mother to support her. "I think it is true that some white students do have advantages. But I am not one of them."
Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education, which represents all accredited colleges and universities, called CIR's ad "a gross exaggeration."
He said in a phone interview that most schools use race only as a "singular plus factor, not a sole determinative factor" in admissions policies, which the law allows.
But Mr. Pell said that, according to the Supreme Court's landmark 1978 Bakke decision, colleges are prohibited from judging applicants by entirely different standards because of their race, even when those policies are designed to promote racial diversity.
Yet "evidence abounds" that many colleges in America - especially the most selective - violate the law when deciding which students to admit, Mr. Pell said.
A new study of 10 public colleges and universities in Virginia found that they discriminate in favor of black applicants, according to Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity. The odds of a white applicant being admitted instead of an equally qualified black candidate at the University of Virginia are 45-to-1, she said.
Here, according to Mr. Pell, are examples of suspect admissions practices:
* If the university tries to admit a certain percentage of minority students.
* If the school adds points to minority applicants' grade average or test scores.
* If the school extends the application deadline to minority students.
* If there is a separate review process for minority applicants.
* If the university automatically classifies minority applicants as disadvantaged.
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