But affirmative action has also created turmoil. The law school and Michigan's undergraduate college have been sued separately, and the results could not be more different. But in late March and again this month, another US judge, Bernard Friedman, ruling in the second case, said the law school could not consider race. One reason Friedman's ruling stuns college leaders is that the law school uses a relatively mild form of affirmative action. There are no firm numerical quotas or special reviews for minority applicants.
Test scores can be particularly central to students' fate.
University of California officials say that scores can be so determinative, yet mean so little once students enroll, that they are considering giving up the SAT as a requirement. Many students at Michigan remain polarized on the fundamental issue of whether a college should pick and choose applicants based on race. But they also do not agree on whether SAT scores should decide who gets a seat here, and whether those with the best numbers enrich the learning environment more than others. At a late-night meeting of the Michigan College Republicans Wednesday, several jubilantly hammered away at Bollinger and his ''Trotskyite'' allies. Englander complained of ''a new Red Scare'' for campus opponents of affirmative action.