Here’s the headline on an Associated Press story about minority applications to the University of Michigan,
Minority applications to U-M decline 23 percent
Here’s the first paragraph of the accompanying story,
Seven months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the University of Michigan’s undergraduate affirmative action policy, the number of applications from blacks, Hispanis and American Indians is down 23 percent from the same time last year.
Oh that evil Supreme Court — without it killing affirmative action, minorities would be applying in droves to the University of Michigan. Well, maybe not since the information that you need to evaluate how significant this decline is gets buried in the fifth paragaraph,
Overall, applications for this fall’s incoming freshman class are down 18 percent, according to the preliminary data compiled Feb. 5 and released to The Associated Press Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
That’s right — the decline in minority applications is just barely lagging overall applications. The Associated Press conveniently leaves out any hint of what the absolute numbers were for both groups over the two years so we could do some additional analysis.
Why are applications so low across the board? Because we have a huge budget deficit here in Michigan and universities are responding with huge tuition increases at the same time that the state has been forced to cut back on the amount of financial aid they can offer low-income students. At the same time, there has been a huge level of manufacturing job loss in this state, causing some people to move to other states where job prospects are better.