Ann Arbor, Mich. — Seven months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the University of Michigan's undergraduate affirmative action policy, the number of applications from blacks, Hispanics and American Indians is down 23 percent from the same time last year.
And the number of those admitted is down 30 percent.
Officials said the figures were only preliminary and thousands more applications would continue to be reviewed in a process the school hopes to finish by the first week of April. The application deadline was Feb. 1.
"We've only accepted a fraction of the class we'll ultimately admit," associate director of admissions Chris Lucier said Monday.
Overall, applications for this fall's incoming freshman class are down 18 percent, according to the preliminary data compiled Feb. 5 and released to The Associated Press Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Despite the decrease in applications, the total number of students admitted so far -- nearly 8,600 -- is down only 1 percent from the same time last year. The university plans to admit 12,000 to 13,000 students and hopes that will yield an enrollment of 5,545 for this fall.
Last June, the high court upheld an affirmative action policy at the University of Michigan law school but struck down the university's undergraduate formula as too rigid. It awarded admission points based on race.
The University of Michigan adopted a new application that still considers race, but does not award points.
Admissions Director Ted Spencer said minority students and their families might not want to thrust themselves into the center of the debate over affirmative action.
"The residual kinds of impact of all this discussion and dialogue, particularly from the other side of this issue, that diversity is bad, it makes a lot of students think, 'Well, maybe I don't want to be put into that sort of environment,"' Spencer said.
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