Appeasing Bakke

The Medical School's admissions process--for months a focus of debate over the extent of affirmative action procedures at the school--will undergo some surgery this spring, but its controversial minority admissions subcommittee is likely to emerge almost intact.

Members of an ad hoc committee on Med School admissions policies reported last week that they will recommend that the school retain the minority subcommittee--which screens minority group applicants--although they believe its authority should be somewhat reduced.

Under the ad hoc committee's plan, the minority subcommittee would still interview minority applicants. However, the applicants would also be screened by one of several other subcommittees, and the full admissions committee would make the final decision on applicants.

At present, only the minority subcommittee screens minority applicants, and the full committee usually follows its recommendations as a matter of course.

The revisions in the Med School admissions policy arose after the Supreme Court's decision in the Bakke reverse discrimination case, which said schools may not use race as the determining factor in admissions decisions.

After that decision, some legal experts warned that the present Med School admissions policy might not conform to the new law. Many students, however, had argued that abolition of the minority subcommittee would damage recruitment of minorities at the school.

The proposed policy revisions will go before the Med School Faculty Council for final approval this spring.