Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - July 19, 2000
General Motors Files Court Brief Defending Affirmative Action at U. of Michigan
By PETER SCHMIDT
The University of Michigan has gained an unusual ally in its struggle to defend its affirmative-action policies against two separate lawsuits in federal court. The General Motors Corporation filed a brief Monday to defend the university's admissions policies as important to businesses that need a diverse work force.
The automaker's brief, filed in both cases in U.S. District Court, maintains that its interest in the legal disputes is substantial. The company, based in Detroit, employs a large number of graduates from the university and, in particular, its business and engineering schools, the brief notes.
The brief says: "In General Motors' view, only a well-educated, highly-diverse work force, comprised of people who have learned to work productively and creatively with individuals from a multitude of races and ethnic, religious, and cultural histories, can maintain America's global competitiveness in the increasingly diverse and interconnected world economy."
The brief was submitted in connection with a lawsuit challenging the university's undergraduate admissions policies, expected to go to trial in September or October, and a separate action challenging the university Law School's admissions policies, scheduled for trial in January. Both complaints are filed on behalf of people who allege that they were unconstitutionally denied admission to the university because they are white.
Lawyers for other parties involved in the cases, including various national higher-education associations, said they were unaware of any other occasion in which a business has sought involvement in a case involving affirmative action in public-college admissions.
"We call upon others in corporate America who share our concerns to step forward and articulate their position," Harry J. Pearce, vice-chairman of General Motors, said in announcing the company's decision to weigh in on the cases.
The company's action was welcomed by officials at the University of Michigan and other defenders of affirmative action.
"We are deeply gratified by General Motors's support for our educational objectives," Lee C. Bollinger, the university's president, said in a prepared statement issued Monday.
Opponents of the university's use of racial preferences in admissions dismissed the company's action as a "politically correct" attempt to curry favor with employees and customers who support affirmative action.
"They are a large corporation, so they are very concerned with their public image," said Curt A. Levey, director of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Rights, which is representing the plaintiffs in the two lawsuits against the university.
Mr. Levey noted that the automaker's brief does not deal with the question of whether the university's policies are narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling state interest -- a key legal standard articulated by the Supreme Court in other affirmative-action cases. "The law is on our side," Mr. Levey maintained.
The corporation's brief instead stresses how the nation's businesses benefit from racially and ethnically diverse college enrollments. It contends that diverse campuses produce workers who are better-prepared than others to function in diverse environments, sell products to a diverse population, and maintain business relationships with foreign business partners.
Much of the research generally cited to back such claims was challenged in a friend-of-the-court brief that the National Association of Scholars filed Monday on behalf of the plaintiffs in the case.
The association's brief argues that the educational benefits of diverse campus environments have been exaggerated by the university and its expert witnesses in the case, and are premised on the false assumption that the members of particular racial and ethnic groups think alike.
The association was the only party to file a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the plaintiffs suing the university.
Other friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the university have been filed by a group of students at its law school called the Student Affirmative Action Coalition; the U.S. Justice Department; the attorneys general of both Michigan and Ohio; a coalition of large universities, the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, and the Association of American Law Schools; and a separate coalition of higher-education organizations headed up by the American Council on Education.