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Affirmative action 'too far,' group says
By UPI Staff
United Press International
October 19, 2006

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (UPI) -- An anti-affirmative action group says black students are nine times more likely to get into the University of Michigan than comparable white students.

A study by the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Virginia group that opposes racial preference, said the preferences applied to Hispanic students too and hurt Asian as well as white students, Booth Newspapers of Grand Rapids, Mich., reports.

The group released the study to bolster a campaign for a Nov. 7 ballot proposal calling for a state constitutional amendment that would ban affirmative action based on race or sex in university admissions and government contracts and hiring.

Center for Equal Opportunity President Roger Clegg said the university's undergraduate admissions policy goes too far in assigning "extra points" to minority applicants.

The university said the study did not "take into account many important factors considered in admissions."

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 race could be considered in college admissions.

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