Supreme Court
The ADC, which is managed by the College Board’s Higher Education Advocacy division and the EducationalCounsel LLC organization, developed the document, which “frames possible outcomes and likely responses and the ADC’s plans for post-decision communications.” A decision in the Fisher case is expected by the end of the Supreme Court’s 2012-13 term, which will be late June or early July.
Formed in the wake of the 2003 Supreme Court decisions in the University of Michigan cases, the ADC provides general policy, practice, legal and strategic guidance to colleges, universities and state higher education systems to support their implementation of diversity-related enrollment policies. The ADC is actively supported by 35 higher education institutions, three foundations and 10 other supporting organizations.
Publishing the nine-page “Preparing for the Fisher Decision” document is the latest effort by the ADC, which pursues its mission through in-person seminars and workshops, published manuals and policy papers and professional development videos. The document is divided into three parts: a background section introduces and provides overview of the Fisher case; an action focus section identifies the activities that institutions should be prepared to take when the decision is announced; and the messaging support section discusses messaging platforms for organizational responses to the decision.
“We have focused on the legal underpinnings, which are significant on a number of diversity-related questions, but as well on the policy, the strategy, the practice, the implementation and the execution” of the actions individual schools may pursue following the Fisher decision, says Art Coleman, managing partner and co-founder of EducationCounsel LLC.
In the guide’s background section, it notes that Fisher differs substantially from the University of Michigan cases, Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, with the key question in the Texas case centering on “when the consideration of race in admissions is, in the first instance, necessary — and therefore justifiable.” The Michigan cases grappled with the “consideration of race and ethnicity as part of an individualized, holistic review process,” according to the guide.
The background section also outlines five potential outcomes of the Fisher case. “We’re looking at a context that’s potentially complex. Now [the Supreme Court] could come out with a very clean decision. We simply don’t know,” Coleman said.
