Four years ago Initiative 200 passed with the approval of 58% of Washington state voters. Like California’s Proposition 209 on which it was modeled, it banned racial preferences in state contracting, hiring, university admissions, etc. Recently the Seattle Times has been running a series of articles assessing the results.
The most recent article found that “I-200 Didn’t Erase Color on State’s College Campuses” (Link via Howard Bashman).
To counter an initial dip in minority enrollment, colleges have used privately funded scholarships and creative recruitment efforts to lure the best and brightest.
At the [University of Washington], an admissions essay bypasses race but tries to “tease out” diversity by asking about life experiences. So while I-200 rendered admissions colorblind, it also may have made college officials even more aware of race and ethnicity.
On the whole the series, including this article, is sound and informative, but occasionally the authors’ observations, or sense of history, will strike many readers as odd. For example, at one point they observe:
Put yourself in the shoes of a college administrator screening 15,000 applicants
