By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tristate colleges and universities say they expect little direct impact on their admissions policies as the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to again enter the debate over racial preferences.

Many local schools have open admission policies, which means that one purpose of the institution is to offer access to every student. That's true at Northern Kentucky University and the University of Cincinnati.

"This is an issue for places that have really restricted admission and we don't," said UC spokesman Greg Hand. "If you have a high school diploma, we'll find someplace for you.

"You may not get into DAAP (Design, Architecture, Art and Planning). You may not get into CCM (College-Conservatory of Music) or Engineering, but we will find a place for you."

For other schools, such as Miami University in Oxford and Xavier University, a private Jesuit school, race is not stated in the admissions policies, although minority recruitment is a big part of planning.

"As part of that planning, we may try to more concretely define some goals," said Marc Camille, Xavier's dean of admission. "But I don't think it will be written into some manual that we will have to abide by."

The high court is expected to decide by June whether race can be used as a factor in college admissions. It's an issue the justices considered once before in the 1978 Bakke case. Then, the high court banned racial quotas but allowed consideration of race in college admissions.

This time, the justices will consider whether white applicants at the University of Michigan's law school were turned down, unconstitutionally, because of their race.

Ronald Crutcher, Miami's provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said any change would be in perception rather than policy.

Smart admissions directors, he said, have already found ways to recruit diverse pools of students without using quotas.

"But subconsciously, it looks as though it's a slap in the face for students of color and people of color in America," he said.

"I'm afraid of the message it sends. When they see this, they give up. They might think it doesn't matter whether they apply."