Diversity Distorted: How the University Of Michigan Withheld Data to Hide Evidence of Racial Conflict and Polarization
0May 16, 2003
by Robert Lerner, Ph.D. and Althea K. Nagai, Ph.D.
Unknown to outsiders, the University of Michigan possesses data and at least
two different statistical reports on UM undergraduates seriously undermining
its claims that its diversity policies are overwhelmingly good, not bad, for
its students. UM's public reports misstate and ignore key findings contained
in the secret reports that show serious racial tension and polarization
among groups on campus that gets worse the longer students stay at the
university. Findings include:
· Interracial tension in residence halls increases dramatically from the initial survey to the end of the second year.
· Perceptions of significant friendships between students of color and white students decrease from entrance to the end of two years.
· Friendships among students of different races continue to decline through the fourth year.
· The longer a student is at UM, the more they see racial conflict on campus.
· Perceptions of UM support of students of color diverge by race through the second year.
· Perceptions of UM support for students of color continue to diverge by race through senior year.
· Students are polarized by race as to whether white faculty respect students of color through the end of the second year.
· Students are even more polarized by race as to whether white faculty respect students of color through the end of senior year.
· White and Asian students come to disagree more over a four-year period that enrollment diversity increases a university's excellence, while African American and Hispanic students see the opposite.
· While black students overwhelmingly disagree that students of color are given advantages that discriminate against other students, Hispanics and Asians are evenly split, while white students disagree.
· White student attitudes on affirmative action policies are largely formed prior to admission.
Background
These reports and the dataset itself (The Michigan Student Study or MSS) were not made available either to the plaintiff's lawyers or to the public. Writer and researcher Chetly Zarko uncovered these documents with a Freedom of Information Action (FOIA).
There are two main documents based on the MSS data, plus many other documents. The first is a second year summary report with accompanying charts; the second was a fourth-year statistical analysis with no accompanying report. Both documents were apparently prepared in 1994 but kept secret. UM's only public documents based on the MSS data are Professor
Patricia Y. Gurin's expert report and a report of findings from the MSS available on the UM website.
While the data remains unavailable to outsiders, persons connected with the University of Michigan have used the MSS for a number of conference papers, articles published in scholarly journals, and for eight doctoral dissertations. To our knowledge, however, none of them makes use of the findings discussed below.
The MSS is a four-year panel study of University of Michigan freshmen. All students of color were interviewed, as was a sample of white students at the beginning of their freshman year, then reinterviewed during the middle of their freshman year, at the end of their second year, and during their senior year.
In the next section, we turn UM's charts and figures into easy-to-read tables so the reader can see what UM collected in its sealed archives.
Suppressed Findings
· Interracial tension in residence halls increases dramatically from the initial survey to the end of the second year.
Table. Interracial Tension in Resident Halls: Perceived as "Quite a Bit or A Great Deal"
Entrance End of Year End ofSecond Year
African American 20% 22% 31%
Asian American 3% 11% 15%
Hispanic/Latino 14% 24% 31%
White 4% 11% 15%
Among African American students, perceptions of interracial tension in UM dorms increased by 50 percent from the time they entered until the end of their second year. For Asian Americans and Whites, it triples, while it doubles for Hispanic students. These results were not reported in either the expert report or in the website report.
Moreover, UM deleted this question about racial tension in the dorms from their fourth year questionnaire. The researchers didn't want to know the results and didn't want anyone else to know either.
·Perceptions of significant friendships between students of color and white
students decrease from entrance to the end of two years.
Table. Friendships Between Students of Color and White Students Perceived as
"Quite a Bit or A Great Deal"
Entrance End of Year End ofSecond Year
African American 81% 72% 51%
Asian American 91% 84% 76%
Hispanic/Latino 86% 72% 66%
White 90% 76% 70%
Perceptions of significant friendships between students of color and whites
decline significantly over two years-they decline by 30 percent among
blacks, so that by the end of the second year, only half the African
American students see substantial degrees of friendships among students of
difference races and ethnicities. There is a 15 percent decline among Asian
Americans, while Hispanic and white perceptions drop by 20 percent.
·Friendships among students of different races continue to decline, all the
way to the fourth year.
Table. Friendships Between Students of Color and White Students. Mean
Response Scores
Entrance End ofFourth Year
African American 3.17 2.64***
Asian American 3.46 3.01***
Hispanic/Latino 3.33 2.84***
White 3.42 2.92***
***p<0.001; Response to the question ranged from 1.0, "Little or none," to
"4.0, "A Great Deal."
The decline in friendship among students of different races and ethnicities
continues through out college. The drop is statistically significant. The
average scores for all ethnic groups dropped significantly from the time
they first entered UM until their fourth year.
This statistically significant drop in interracial/ethnic friendships is
another suppressed finding. The expert report and the website report only
divulge the results for the fourth-year students and ignore the
statistically significant drop from entrance.
·The longer a student is at UM, the more they see racial conflict on
campus.
Table. Racial Conflict on Campus: A Comparison of Mean Response Scores from
Entrance to the End of the Fourth Year
Entrance End ofFourth Year
African American 2.39 2.59
Asian American 2.04 2.23**
Hispanic/Latino 1.96 2.14
White 2.04 2.12***
**p<0.01, ***p<0.001; Response to the question ranged from 1.0, "Little or
none," to "4.0, "A Great Deal."
All racial and ethnic groups report increases in the amount of racial
conflict on campus after four years, as represented by the mean scores
above. There is a statistically significant increase in perceptions of
racial conflict on campus among Asians and whites.
The expert report does not mention these findings. The website report
mentions only the senior year results, ignoring the trend data reported
above.
Perceptions of UM support of students of color diverge by race through the
second year.
Table. University Commitment to Students of Color Perceived as "Quite a Bit
or A Great Deal"
Entrance End ofFirst Year End ofSecond Year
African American 46% 21% 19%
Asian American 49% 53% 55%
Hispanic/Latino 52% 51% 60%
White 57% 69% 70%
Opinion on UM support of students of color is quite polarized by the end of
the second year and beyond. Roughly half of Asian and Hispanic students at
entry and 57 percent of whites at entry think UM has a substantial
commitment to students of color. These percentages increase substantially by
the end of their second year. In contrast, less than half the African
American students upon entrance believe the same, which declines to 19
percent by the end of the second year. Note that 70 percent of white
students after two years think the same-a gap of over 50 percentage points
between whites and blacks.
· Perceptions of UM support for students of color continue to diverge by
race through senior year.
Table. University commitment to admit more students of color and develop an
environment that is conducive to their success: Mean Responses.
Entrance End ofFourth Year
African American 2.53 2.00***
Asian American 2.59 2.62
Hispanic/Latino 2.59 2.59
White 2.67 2.87***
**p<0.01, ***p<0.001; Response to the question ranged from 1.0, "Little or
none," to "4.0, "A Great Deal."
After four years white students are more likely to believe that the
university is strongly committed to admit more students of color and develop
an environment that is conducive to their success. At the same time,
however, after four years, black students are less likely to believe that
the university is strongly committed to admit more students of color and
develop an environment that is conducive to their success. The changes for
blacks and whites are statistically significant, while the initial
differences are not so.
The expert report does not mention these findings, while the website report
notes the results, but provides no explanation for them.
Students are polarized by race as to whether white faculty respect
students of color through the end of the second year.
Table. Respect by White Faculty for Students of Color Perceived as Quite a
Bit or a Great Deal.
Entrance End ofFirst Year End ofSecond Year
African American 33% 37% 32%
Asian American 69% 69% 67%
Hispanic/Latino 76% 82% 81%
White 86% 86% 88%
These findings change very little from entry to the end of the second year,
so that, after two years at UM, opinion on how white faculty treat students
of color is still polarized. Only 32 percent of black students believe that
students of color receive "quite a bit" or "a great deal of respect" from
white faculty, compared to 67 percent of Asians, 81 percent of Hispanics,
and 88 percent of white students after two years.
As the authors of the Second-Year Executive Summary note, this difference
supports the concern in the literature on minority students that they feel
disrespected by the faculty at predominantly white institutions. They fail
to note that the large average differences in qualifications between blacks
and other students might cause these differences in faculty perception. The
median black math SAT score of the entering class of 1995 was 130 points
less than the white median, while the median black verbal SAT score for the
same class was 100 points less.
· Students are even more polarized by race as to whether white faculty
respect students of color through the end of senior year.
Table. Respect by White Faculty for Students of Color, Mean Responses
Entrance End ofFourth Year
African American 2.41 2.16**
Asian American 2.87 2.78
Hispanic/Latino 2.98 2.87
White 3.18 3.07**
**p<0.01; Response to the question ranged from 1.0, "Little or none," to
"4.0, "A Great Deal."
Black and white students report a statistically significant decline in the
respect for students of color among white faculty over a four-year period.
However, whites and other ethnic groups continue to believe that students of
color receive respect; blacks do not believe that students of color receive
respect. The white-black difference is statistically significant, according
to the secret chart.
These findings are not mentioned in the expert report. The website report
mentions similar findings among seniors from a differently worded question
without comment. In no place is the test score gap mentioned.
White and Asian students come to disagree more over a four-year period
that enrollment diversity increases a university's excellence, while African
American and Hispanic students see the opposite.
Table. In the long run, a greatly increased enrollment of students of color
will enhance the excellence of universities: Mean Responses.
Entrance Fourth Year
African American 1.63 1.48
Asian American 2.05 2.17
Hispanic/Latino 2.10 1.92
White 2.44 2.82***
**p<0.001; Response to the question ranged from 1.0, "Agree," to "4.0,
"Disagree."
Between their first semester freshman year and their senior years, white
students come to disbelieve that enrollment diversity enhances excellence.
The change over time is statistically significant. Moreover, according to
the Four-Year Statistical Analysis, the difference in mean responses between
African American students and all other groups is statistically significant,
as is the difference in mean scores between whites and all other groups. In
other words, African Americans are significantly more likely than all other
groups to believe that greatly increasing the number of students of color
increases the excellence of universities; in contrast, whites are
significantly more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to think the
opposite. These findings appear in neither the expert report nor the website
report.
While black students overwhelmingly disagree that students of color are
given advantages that discriminate against other students, Hispanics and
Asians are evenly split, while white students agree.
Table. Students of color are given advantages that discriminate against
other students: Mean Scores.
Entrance Fourth Year
African American 3.21 3.57**
Asian American 2.54 2.60
Hispanic/Latino 2.64 2.83
White 2.17 2.22
**p<0.01; Response to the question ranged from 1.0, "Agree," to "4.0,
"Disagree."
Once again, these findings are not discussed, either in the expert report or
the website report. Neither the admissions grids nor the point system of
admissions used by the University of Michigan are mentioned by either
report.
·Student attitudes on affirmative action policies are largely formed prior
to admission.
Table. Fourth Year White Student Support for Affirmative Action Policies:
Statistically Significant Standardized Regression Coefficients
StandardizedRegression Coefficients
Entrance Characteristics
Family's Socio-Economic Status 0.08*
Pre-College Intergroup Contact 0.07*
Political Ideology -0.17***
Attitudes at Entrance 0.38***
College Experience
Friendships with African Americans 0.08**
Curriculum 0.23***
*p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001
The statistical analyses show that political ideology and attitudes towards
affirmative action upon entering college remains by far the most important
predictors of senior attitudes among whites, with standardized regression
coefficients of -0.17 and 0.38 respectively. In contrast, contact with
students of other racial and ethnic groups in college have almost no effect.
Only friendship with African American students during college shows any
statistical significance, and then it was only a small effect (0.08), while
the curriculum has almost three times the effect on student attitudes after
four years (0.23). There are no results presented for students of other
racial/ethnic backgrounds.
The expert report ignores these data. The website report deliberately
ignores the role of political ideology in predicting student beliefs and
exaggerates the importance of prior friendships.
Conclusion
Data and manuscript analyses that are at serious variance with published
findings and a key expert report in an important legal case have been
deliberately kept from the plaintiffs, the courts, and the public.
Suppressed data and manuscripts show that diversity achieved by racial
preference policies results in many negative effects, and these negative
effects appear to worsen the longer students attend the university.
It is especially important to note that the expert report makes false claims
about UM data. The author claims any problem that students have in making
interracial friendships is simply due to their prior socialization in
segregated environments. This is false.
In fact, the time trend data, none of which is presented in her expert
report, show that students begin with high hopes and anticipations.
Polarization among the races becomes worse the longer students are at the
University of Michigan. If the problems were solely a result of the
individual background students bring to the university, the problems should
diminish and not increase over time. Use of the suppressed data completely
refutes the Gurin claims and give lie to her argument that diversity works.
The findings in these hidden documents are sufficient by themselves to cast
serious doubt on the positive impact of diversity in fostering the education
of students.
