Percentage of minority students drops at University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Nov. 1, 2007 (AP): Fewer black and American Indian students are attending the University of Michigan’s main campus this fall in the wake of the passage of an anti-affirmative action ballot proposal.

Total enrollment increased by 1,017 students, or 2.5 percent, to more than 41,000 this fall, a record. But the school said Thursday that black student enrollment dropped 3.3 percent and the number of American Indians decreased 1.2 percent.

Latino student enrollment was up 1 percent, while the number of white students increased 2.1 percent.

The University of Michigan and other public colleges in the state were forced last December by voter-passed Proposal 2 to change admissions policies offering preferential treatment based on race and gender.

“At other universities with similar ballot proposals across the country, underrepresented minority student enrollment has dropped significantly,” Michigan's senior vice provost Lester Monts said in a statement.

The number of minority freshmen is about the same as last year. But as part of the larger incoming freshman class, the percentage of minority students dropped to 11.4 percent from 12.7 percent last fall, the school said.

Blacks make up 5.8 percent of Michigan’s nearly 6,000-student freshman class, a 1.2 percent increase over last year. But Latino freshmen enrollment dropped 2.6 percent. Asian freshmen increased by 13.2 percent.