The College Board issued a paper today urging higher-education institutions to prepare in advance to fight state ballot measures prohibiting the consideration of race and ethnicity in admissions. The paper argues that Michigan voters’ strong support last November for Proposal 2, a constitutional amendment banning the use of affirmative-action preferences by public colleges and other state agencies, illustrates that colleges must better communicate to the public “the need for maintaining the academic freedom of higher-education institutions to use race and ethnicity in enrollment-management practices.”

Although the U.S. Supreme Court was swayed by assertions of the benefits of a diverse student body in its 2003 rulings in two cases involving the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the passage of Proposal 2 shows such arguments “did not carry the day in the court of public opinion,” the paper says. It argues that colleges must do more to make the public aware that they consider many applicant traits other than test scores and grades in assembling their entering classes.

Colleges also need to forge coalitions with leaders of business, the military, the government, and other sectors of society who can help build public support for race- and ethnicity-conscious admissions policies before such policies are threatened by ballot measures like Proposal 2, the paper says.

The paper, which is part of a new series of College Board publications dealing with issues related to access and diversity in higher education, is titled “From Federal Law to State Voter Initiatives: Preserving Higher Education’s Authority to Achieve the Educational, Economic, Civic, and Security Benefits Associated With a Diverse Student Body.” —Peter Schmidt