University of Maryland, Baltimore remains the only public college in Maryland that refuses to set goals for minority enrollment despite state officials? recent calls for more affirmation action.
William Kirwan, University System of Maryland chancellor, recently vowed to halve the achievement gap between whites and minorities by 2015, and Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler has pledged to counsel schools on how to start programs that help minorities, while avoiding costly lawsuits challenging the efforts.
But UMB doesn?t want to set benchmarks out of fear students and courts would perceive them as racial quotas, which the Supreme Court has deemed unconstitutional, said Susan Gillette, university counsel.
“There is no other public, four-year institution in Maryland that has taken UMB?s position,” said Michael Keller, policy analysis and research director for the Maryland Higher Education Commission.
A representative for the U.S. Office for Civil Rights told university lawyers in 2005 that establishing goals does not violate the law or court decisions, Keller said.
With minorities comprising a third of UMB students and blacks comprising 18 percent, the school?s racial breakdown is more diverse than that of many of the state?s colleges.
But that does not excuse UMB from the state?s request that all universities set goals for minority enrollment, state officials say.
“We aren?t saying that UMB?s performance is bad,” Keller said. “I?m just saying they aren?t following the rules everyone else has.”
UMB?s reluctance stems from a lawsuit a white applicant to the medical school filed four years ago against the university, alleging reverse discrimination. UMB won, but the fear of litigation lingers.
Carl Snowden, director of Gansler?s new civil rights division, described UMB?s aversion to benchmarks as one of the reasons the attorney general?s office wants to advise schools on what?s legal in the realm of affirmative action.
“We?ll be meeting with UMB officials and others to develop constitutionally sound and legally defensible programs,” he said.
“Benchmarks and goals are not quotas. That?s clear in my mind.”
