WSJ Review & Outlook
Color-Blind Progress
December 13, 2004; Page A16
You wouldn’t know it from reading the papers. But the U.S. Office of Civil Rights scored an important victory recently when Wisconsin agreed to restructure a scholarship program that discriminates based on race and ethnicity. It’s the latest sign of a welcome trend away from racially exclusive programs in higher education.
The Supreme Court’s decision last year regarding the University of Michigan’s race-conscious admissions policies has hastened the trend, but schools were coming around even before the ruling. Since 2002, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Williams, Indiana University and dozens of others have opened up scholarships, internships and summer programs to all students, regardless of race.