Is Neutrality Possible In A System Of Preferences?

The Washington Post reports today that an increasing number of college applicants are refusing to identify themselves by race on their application forms.

At George Washington University, more than 2,000 applicants skipped the ethnicity question this year, 45 percent more than two years ago. At the College of William & Mary, nearly one applicant in five this year left the check boxes blank. Nearly 1,500 of the 25,000 undergraduates enrolled this year at the University of Maryland never disclosed their ethnicity, about a 25 percent increase since 2000.

This is good. It would be better if more applicants opted out of the racial/ethnic identity sweepstakes.

The students’ refusal to participate in the race game makes perfect sense to me. What I don’t understand is the response of many college officials, who

insist that the empty check boxes do not affect their admissions decisions, even as most strive to recruit ethnically diverse classes….

….

“We don’t ever assume color for any student who does not disclose,” said Karen Cottrell, associate provost for enrollment at William & Mary. “In our search for diversity, if race is listed, that’s going to be part of it. If it’s not there, it’s a neutral.”

But how can it be “a neutral”? The Center for Equal Opportunity and others have documented that minorities have a dramatically greater chance of being admitted to selective colleges than non-minorities with identical grades and test scores. Based on data received from the University of Michigan, the CEO has shown, for example, that a black applicant to the class of 1995 with a combined SAT score of 1000 and a GPA of 3.0 had over a 95% probability of being accepted. By contrast, a white applicant with the same SAT score and GPA had an acceptance probability of 10.3%. (Scroll down the CEO web page linked above to the “What Are the Chances That You’ll Get In?” link.)

What would be the chances of an applicant of unknown race? If a candidate is known to be white or Asian, he or she obviously is excluded from receiving a racial preference. So, is a candidate of unknown ethnicity treated the same as whites and Asians? If so, then William & Mary’s Ms. Cottrell is wrong and that student’s unknown ethnicity would not be “a neutral,” since he or she would be excluded from preferences.

Managing racial and ethnic preferences must be a difficult job. It’s almost enough to make one feel sorry for those who have to do the dirty work. Almost.

UPDATEJoanne Jacobs makes a similar point today, except she says it better in fewer words.

Say What? (4)

  1. KP June 2, 2003 at 10:47 am | | Reply

    What stops people from lying? There’s no photo and as we all know, you can’t tell just by looking. Why can’t my kid say he’s black or Indian?

  2. M June 2, 2003 at 11:20 am | | Reply

    I have wondered about KT’s issue as well. In a way it would be a classic civil disobediance tactic. What if everyone just checked black for example – using the logic that our lineages can al be traced back to Africa. This tactic would highlight how artificial the concept of race is.

    Is the whole racial spoils system actaully an honor system?

  3. Paladin June 2, 2003 at 7:18 pm | | Reply

    There is another solution, that white and Asian students are actually penalized, which leaves the non-selected position as truly neutral. That would be illegal under current law, but so is any racial preference program at a university receiving federal funding, so why should that stop them?

  4. Rolrom June 3, 2003 at 11:39 am | | Reply

    Further to KP, what would happen if a “white” claimed they were “black” on an admission form:

    If the college finds out, dare they admit that the person was admitted on that basis?

    Even if they do, can the admittee (i) claim it was a mistake, and if so, to what effect (especially once classes start), and (ii) claim that they are black, and force the college to disprove that (imagine how ugly that might be)?

    Does anyone know if there has been a case–even a blatant test case–on this issue?

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