ANN ARBOR (AP): The effect of the state's new law banning some types of affirmative action programs on admissions at University of Michigan is unclear based on recently released data, the school said.

The number of black, Latino and American Indian applicants was up compared with a year ago by 10.5 percent to 2,460, according to school figures released Friday and reported by The Detroit News and The Ann Arbor News.

In the weeks leading up to Proposal 2’s implementation, the university said it admitted 55 percent more minority students than the same period a year before. Minority admissions declined 25 percent in a period that includes the time after.

University leaders cautioned that the numbers were too preliminary to draw conclusions. School spokeswoman Julie Peterson said the university made no special effort to push through minority students before the ban was in place.

``We didn't evaluate their applications first. We evaluated their applications in the order they came in,'' she said.

The application deadline was Feb. 1. The school has rolling admissions and is still making decisions. In all, the school received 26,554 applications, a 6.5 percent increase from a year ago.

Proposal 2, approved in November, bans the use of race and gender preferences in public university admissions and government hiring and contracting.

Jennifer Gratz, who led the push for Proposal 2, said students want to be judged on their merits.

``What really discourages people from applying is when universities tell people that they need some sort of preference to be accepted, which is what the university has basically been saying,'' Gratz said.

The new law took effect Dec. 23. Cases challenging all or parts of Proposal 2 continue in federal courts.

On the Net: University of Michigan: http://www.umich.edu