Erin O’Connor discussed here, and I followed her with some additional discussion here, Princeton’s recent decision to drop a minorities-only summer program because, as Robert Durkee, Princeton’s vice president for communications, put it, “[i]t was not a good strategy to offer a program that is not defensible.”
Now Erin is back, leading the way (as is her wont), with news that Lester Monts, the University of Michigan’s senior vice provost for academic affairs, says Princeton’s decision “sounds irrational.” Monts also said, somewhat incredibly given Michigan’s current, er, legal posture,
We have many of these programs on the University campus and they are working very well to bring minority students and students of color into the fold for graduate study and professional study.
Monts added that “the University plans to continue similar initiatives.”
According to the article and other sources, one other major research university being investigated by the feds has attempted to defend a program similar to Princetons’s, and apparently Michigan’s, and is having a good deal of difficulty doing so.
My favorite quote from the article, however, once again is from Princeton’s inimitable Robert Durkee, the communications VP:
“(It) is a program that would not be able to pass legal muster,” Durkee said. “There was some risk that if we perceive that program was sustainable under current law, there would be questions about whether we understood how current law was being applied.”
Where do they find these guys? On the other hand, Durkee of Princeton, unlike Monts of Michigan, sounds like he at least has a clue.
