One university's case for race

"Over the years, it became a student slogan that's been passed down into the lexicon of the Caucasian community on campus and other students: 'Bobby stayed.' "

Casteen leans back in his chair and glances thoughtfully at the ceiling. "That's it," he says about the two-word mantra.

"Nowadays when somebody - anybody, really - becomes discouraged and talks about leaving or giving up, there's always someone to remind [that student] that Bobby stayed."

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. - In his class on civil rights, Julian Bond's booming voice carries easily across the hall of 180 students, almost all of whom are white.

Most in this class were born in the 1980s. For many, it is their first serious exposure to the sit-in protests of the 1960s and the face of racism it revealed in America. "The sit-ins were a direct challenge to cherished white beliefs," he intones, "specifically, the idea that blacks were satisfied with segregation."

Several white students cringe as a slide pops up showing white youths pouring ketchup on a black man seated at a diner counter. Later, Mr. Bond, who lived through the 1960s crucible and helped organize many sit-ins, says that having even a few minority students in class is important. "I can't teach what I'm teaching to white students alone."

The benefits of a new perspective may be equally powerful for black students as well. "The class has meant more to me than I thought it would," says Erika McCullough, a third-year art major from New Jersey.

Later, just a few buildings away, a morning anthropology class has decided to make a "teachable moment" out of a recent racial assault on campus and debate what to do about it.

Wearing a red sweatshirt and an anguished expression, a white male student suggests that a mandatory class on race relations might be a good idea.

"Hey, look, I didn't learn anything about race or race relations until this class," he laments. "I just think I need a class to be able to deconstruct it."

Jamie Williams, a student whose mother is white and father is black, wishes there were more social integration on campus - a common sentiment. At present, fraternities divide along racial lines, as do dorms. Still, she takes a long view.

"We have to remember it's taken 200 years for it to get this way - and the University of Virginia is really just a microcosm," she says. "This [racism] is really an American problem."

Barbara Grutter, a mother of two, housewife, and healthcare consultant who lives in Plymouth, Mich., has wanted to attend law school since 1997.

Very soon, the wait may be over.

In oral arguments expected today, her lawyers will tell the US Supreme Court that the University of Michigan Law School discriminated against her because of her race (she is white), while minority applicants with lesser grades and test scores won admission.

Likewise, in a parallel case being heard at the same time, attorneys for Jennifer Gratz will argue the University of Michigan's undergraduate admission policies also discriminated unfairly against her because she is white.

On the opposite side, the University of Michigan - supported by at least 80 friend-of-the-court briefs filed by dozens of universities and major corporations - will argue that giving weight to an applicant's race in support of diversity is a "compelling interest" needed for educational quality.

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