"Affirmative Action, Educational Equity and Campus Racial Climate: A Case Study of the University of Michigan Law School"

This study involved a systematic, empirically-based examination of campus climate and how campus climate is related to the access and achievement of Black, Latino, Asian and Native American students at the "feeder" schools to the University of Michigan Law School and at the University of Michigan Law School itself.Previous research demonstrates that campus climate is a central determinant of college access and achievement for underrepresented students.'Specifically, this research shows that students of color and women often underachieve on campuses characterized by hostile racial or gender climates.Beyond this general case, studies of law schools reveal that women and students of color often experience these environments as hostilethey often feel alienated, isolated, devalued and attacked .Where this is the case, whether it be in law school or at the undergraduate level, the educational experiences and educational outcomes for these students are negatively affected. 3 This research focused on the campus environments encountered by students of color both in selected University of Michigan Law School feeder schools and during their law school years.We used a multi-method research design, which collected data from focus groups, personal interviews, surveys, university records, newspapers, natural observations and other sources.Our multi-method strategy was intended to gather extensive information from diverse sources that could then be combined to present a rich, detailed description of campus racial climate at the University of Michigan Law School (and at some of the major undergraduate institutions from which the law school regularly recruits).The general research questions that guide this study are relatively straightforward.We ask:I. Is the campus climate at the University of Michigan Law School hostile towards female, Black, Latino and other students of color? 2. Are the climates at key undergraduate institutions from which the University of Michigan Law School recruits hostile toward female, Black, Latino and other students of color? 3. Do hostile campus climates have negative effects on academic performance, goals and opportunities of women and students of color who aspire to become attorneys?While the research questions are simple, the implications of answers to these questions are complex and far-reaching.These research questions respond directly to an emerging orthodoxy that suggests that America is now a color-blind, egalitarian society where racial and gender discrimination are relics of a distant 1.