Affirmative Action College

Statistics on Diversity Spending in Colleges

Diversity administrators at colleges across the country say they're concerned about an affirmative-action backlash in Colorado after a Libertarian group issued a report criticizing loose minority-program spending at the University of Colorado.

The Independence Institute, a Golden-based think tank, released a report last week slamming the state's flagship campus for not clearly tracking how much money it spends on programs that promote diversity. Later in the week, two Republican state legislators called for a state audit of CU's diversity spending.

Many of the 170 administrators, educators and admissions counselors gathered in South Carolina this week for a conference at Clemson University on black student achievement expressed distress over the developments in Colorado, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. They said they see the cost-benefit analysis as a new avenue to attack affirmative action, and some said they were worried that colleges are ill-prepared to defend their diversity spending, the article says.