Orfield said he thought the decision in Gratz will be only a temporary stumbling block to affirmative action at large state schools like Michigan, and that the school would find a solution in time for next fall’s applicant pool—though the task will be “costly and difficult.”
And his outlook on the future of affirmative action in the wake of the Court’s rulings was optimistic.
“The objective has been pretty sweepingly upheld by the Supreme Court, and it’s a much more conservative one than the one which upheld Bakke,” he said. “That’s remarkable.”
—Stephen M. Marks contributed to the reporting of this story.
—J. Hale Russell contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Simon W. Vozick-Levinson can be reached at vozick@fas.harvard.edu.