Jennifer Gratz is recognized as one of the nation’s leading figures in the battle to end racial preferences. She has appeared in numerous national and local media outlets (Dateline, Nightline, Today Show, NY Times, Washington Post, WSJ, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and many others), and served as the lead plaintiff in the most important challenge to racial preferences in a generation. A graduate of Southgate (Mich.) Anderson High School in 1995, she was unfairly rejected admission to the University of Michigan despite placing 12th in her graduating class with a 3.8 GPA along with numerous extra curricular activities including serving as Student Council Vice President and Honor Roll Student for consecutive years. After a lengthy investigation, spearheaded by a University of Michigan professor, it was discovered that the University was using a dual-admissions system with completely different standards depending on one’s race. Therefore, in 1997 Gratz filed suit against the UM based on its two-track admissions grid system, which assigned higher points to some applicants because of their racial background. Gratz v. Bollinger challenged racial preferences in student admissions at UM’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LS&A). On June 23, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the preference programs in place for the past decade at the University of Michigan's undergraduate college of LS&A. This was the first successful Supreme Court challenge of a college racial preference program in more than 25 years. The Court ended the wholesale use of mechanical racial preferences in admissions but in a separate, companion case against UM’s Law School the Court inexplicably allowed the continued use of race in admissions. As executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, Gratz spearheaded the effort that secured a record 500,000+ signatures to amend the Michigan constitution. As a result of Gratz’s leadership, Michigan voters will have the opportunity in November 2006 to decide whether to end race and gender preferences once and for all. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative does not propose to and will not end all forms of affirmative action. Instead the Initiative will make it unlawful for public employers, public contractors, and public education to discriminate or grant preferential treatment on the basis of race, ethnicity, skin color, sex, or national origin. Since she filed her suit, Jennifer has graduated from the University of Michigan - Dearborn with a degree in mathematics and worked in the computer software industry before moving back to Michigan to lead the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.
Jennifer Gratz Bio (  pdf) 
|
