Events in Maryland and California suggest the future direction of judicial and state policy. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals recently rejected the University of Maryland's Bannecker fellowship program for talented African American students as unconstitutional. The program has come under fire because many recipients are middle income students who would attend college without such a fellowship. The University, joined by the US Department of Justice and numerous higher education associations, will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court. In California, a group of conservative professors have put forward a ballot initiative eliminating the consideration of race in admissions and hiring at the state's public colleges and universities.
Early polls estimate that the initiative is favored by two-thirds of California voters.
Both UC Berkeley and UCLA have come under fire for admissions policies that allow black and Hispanic students to enter the university with lower test scores than whites and Asian-Americans. Public Opinion Californians are not alone in their dislike of affirmative action. 12 Further, slightly more than half of the whites polled believe that affirmative action has resulted in decreased opportunity for white men. Ironically, only 13 percent of these people believe they personally have ever been denied a job or promotion because of their race. The current firestorm around affirmative action will affect public and private colleges differently.