Promoting Equality in Higher Education

Daniel Herwitz (DH): Martin Hall, you have been here at the University of Michigan for the past week involved in our Poorest of the Poor Conference, helping us plan for an enhanced presence in South Africa, and also continuing your work with Marvin Krislov and David Featherman on a comparative study of affirmative action and equity between two elite public universities, the University of Michigan and the University of Cape Town. Would you begin by telling us about that comparative work? Martin Hall (MH): This is an engagement that started a number of years ago and has taken the form of two high-level seminars so far: one here in Ann Arbor and a follow up in Cape Town. The fascinating issues before us are that both the University of Cape Town and the University of Michigan are public universities and also highly selective universities. Michigan has been thrust into the limelight with the recent Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action; key jurisprudence has been written around its role. Michigan has very seriously deepened our understanding in South Africa of the educational, ethical, legal, and constitutional issues around affirmative action and admissions. What then becomes interesting is the comparison with the South African situation. Since 1994 and the abolition of formal segregation policies in South Africa, we have been on a track to rapid readjustment in terms of principles of social justice. We’ve a new constitution and higher education policy. We are similar to Michigan, but there are also differences. First, interpretations of your constitution in the Supreme Court specify that you may not use the constitution explicitly to redress past wrongs; that is the interpretation of your equal protection clauses. Our constitution says absolutely the inverse. The South African constitution says that we must put in place procedures to correct past and continuing discrimination. Second, your fundamental concerns are with minority rights, while our fundamental concerns are with majority rights. Now that sets up very interesting cross currents of debate. That is coming together in a book that we are preparing for the University of Michigan Press called The Next Twenty-Five Years. Ironically, since we started on the book, you have had Proposal Two on the ballot. We in turn have come under greater pressure on our equity policies. So these are moving targets.