The National Association of Scholars announced Tuesday it will be seeking access to admissions documents of selective public universities in 20 states.
The NAS is working with the Center for Equal Opportunity and the Center for Individual Rights to determine how publicly funded schools use race and ethnicity in the college admissions process.
\What we want to find out is whether or not race is indeed being used as a way of disadvantaging any individuals applying to public institutions,"" NAS Executive Director Bradford Wilson said.
Although the inquiries are limited to 20 states, Wilson said the NAS will expand that number dramatically in the weeks and months ahead.
While UW-Madison is not among the universities contacted by the NAS, the university is already involved in a lawsuit concerning admissions information according to Marshall Osborn, former president of the Wisconsin Association of Scholars and UW-Madison math professor.
According to Osborn, the lawsuit has been going on for several years but little progress has been made in the release of information.
""We should be getting to the bottom of this, finding out what is going on, what we can do about it and making some actual progress instead of sweeping it under the table and pretending that nothing is happening,"" Osborn said.
Curt Levey, director of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Rights, said his group will provide legal analysis of the information acquired by the NAS. The Center for Equal Opportunity is known for its success in persuading universities to abandon race-exclusive programs.
""We want to find out if schools are complying with the new legal standards laid down by the Supreme Court or whether they're just sticking to their old ways,"" Levey said.
The Center for Individual Rights argued the plantiffs' cases in the Gratz and Grutter cases, which came before the Supreme Court in June 2003. In those decisions, the court limited the amount of weight that could be given to race in admissions processes.
Levy said schools tend to want to with hold admissions information, citing privacy concerns.
""I don't know what the reason could be other than they feel they have something to hide,"" he said.
