Back To Bakke

TIPTOEING ALONG THE FINE LINE THAT SEPARATES affirmative action from reverse discrimination is a delicate act. At Boalt Hall, the law school of the University of California at Berkeley, they thought they had it right with an admissions policy that since 1968 has aimed for an enrollment of 23% to 27% minority students. But last week, after a two-year investigation, the Department of Education announced that Berkeley had gone too far in accommodating minorities. The university denied any wrongdoing but said it would consider dropping ethnicity or race as a determining factor in selecting law school applicants from its waiting list. It may also halt the practice of assigning all applications from a single minority group to one admissions team. But the law school vows to continue giving "special consideration" to minority applicants and even to maintain "target" ranges for minority enrollment.

The prolonged investigation of Boalt Hall has worried universities already struggling to chart a path between the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlaws racial discrimination, and the 1978 Supreme Court decision in the case of white medical school applicant Allan Bakke, which bans reverse discrimination and racial quotas.