As the news about the 2007-2008 academic year comes out, we will be following the impact of Prop. 2 on minority students and communities in Michigan, with an emphasis on American Indian students.

Details from the Detroit News: “A record number of new freshmen flocked to Michigan public universities this fall, but some scholarship opportunities for the 40,674 students have dried up in light of Proposal 2.

“The constitutional amendment passed by voters last November not only banned preferences based on race and gender in public university admissions, but also shut down financial aid programs geared toward those targeted groups.

“Scholarships for women in engineering, single mothers, Hispanic scholars and high-achieving black students are among the programs that have been eliminated or altered at some of the state’s 15 public universities. In general, university leaders said they didn’t take away scholarships they promised students before Proposal 2 took effect Dec. 23, but the challenge has been how to help incoming classes without violating the law.”

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“The Alumni Association of the University of Michigan decided this fall to establish race- and gender-based scholarships after assurances from lawyers that doing so wouldn’t violate the law, leaders said.

“The board set aside $650,000 in seed money and anticipates awarding the first scholarships for incoming students in 2008.

“We wanted to be able to make it possible for alumni and others who want to provide support to do so,” said alumni association president Steve Grafton. “They can’t do that with the university and we can provide that opportunity for them.

“And we are really interested in helping to maintain and build the diversity at the university. This is a recruiting tool that will help the university recruit the very brightest students of color, women in engineering and men in nursing,” he said.

“Much of the debate over Proposal 2 has focused on the University of Michigan, the only state university that admittedly used affirmative action in undergraduate admissions. But the impact of the new constitutional amendment can be felt around the state, as scholarships for students based, in part, on race, gender or ethnicity were not uncommon.

“Universities initiated reviews of all of their scholarship programs. Central Michigan University found four scholarships that involved preferences. CMU didn’t change two slated for Native Americans because they believe those scholarships are based on sovereignty status, not on race.“