Roger Clegg, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, has an OpEd in today’s Detroit Free Press that nicely summarizes the findings of the new CEO studies of continuing discrimination in Michigan I discussed yesterday here.
An excerpt:
The studies also tell the story using the statistical device of odds ratios. To put things in perspective, the odds ratio for a nonsmoker versus a smoker dying from lung cancer is 14 to 1. The chance of a white versus a black getting into U-M’s law school is 18 to 1; for med school, it’s 21 to 1; for undergraduate admission, it’s either 63 to 1 (if you take the ACT) or 70 to 1 (if you take the SAT), the research shows.
Or look at it this way: In the four years analyzed by the studies, there were 8,091 Hispanics, Asians and whites whose undergraduate applications were rejected even though they had higher SAT/ACT scores and high school GPAs than the median black applicant who was admitted. For the law school, the number (based on undergraduate grades and LSAT) was 4,415; for the medical school (undergraduate science GPA and MCAT), the figure was 11,647, or nearly 3,000 students each year. (The four-year total of rejected African Americans was much smaller, especially for the professional schools: 1,539 undergrad, 31 law, and 215 medical.)
UPDATE
InsideHigherEd also has a report today on the CEO studies. It quoted one finding that I have not:
For undergraduates in the most recent year for which data are available (2004), 28 percent of black students had been on academic probation at some point in their Michigan careers, compared to 23 percent of Hispanic students, 8 percent of Asian students, and 5 percent of white students.
Well, I’m a tad embarrassed to say so but I am a graduate of the U of M law school. This sort of thing makes it real, real easy to toss their money begging letters.
Me too. I’m also a U-M alumnus. (undergrad). The football team is the only use I have had for the whole d*** place in the last 30 years. No coincidence. It is the only department in the whole place that does not make a fetish of aff action and political correctness.
(“Uh… Coach Carr … we’ve been meaning to speak with you about the appalling and historic lack of diversity among your tailbacks. For over a dozen years now they have all been fast … strong … good balance and vision … between 18-21 years old … male … and uh … ‘ya know … black.
Soooo, we’ve decided that in the interest of providing the educational benefits that come from a … diverse … student body we require you … Coach Carr … to achieve a … critical mass … (yeah, critical mass … THAT’s the ticket!) of older, slower, and whiter tailbacks. Never mind your W-L record.)