Wooden v. Board of Regents University of Georgia System

Citation247 F.3d 1262
Decision Date19 April 2001
Docket NumberNo. 00-14322,00-14322
Parties(11th Cir. 2001) MICHAEL WOODEN, TERRY BRATCHER, Dr., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA, STEPHEN R. PORTCH, Dr., et al., Defendants-Appellees, GEORGIA STATE CONFERENCE NAACP, SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, et al., Intervenor-Defendants- Appellees
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Before BLACK and MARCUS, Circuit Judges, and HANCOCK*, District Judge.

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs appeal the district court's orders dismissing for lack of standing their race discrimination claims against officials of the University of Georgia System. This litigation actually encompasses two distinct claims. One group of Plaintiffs -- Tracy, Davis, and Green (collectively, "Tracy Plaintiffs") -- is composed of unsuccessful applicants to the University of Georgia; they allege that the Defendants' freshman admissions policies impermissibly favor non-whites over whites in violation of the Equal Protection Clause and federal civil rights statutes. A second group of Plaintiffs -- Wooden, Jarvis, and Bratcher (collectively, "Wooden Plaintiffs") -- is composed of individuals with ties to three historically black institutions ("HBIs") in Georgia's university system; they allege that operation of the HBIs unlawfully discriminates against non-blacks. In a series of orders, the district court dismissed the claims of all of these Plaintiffs for lack of standing; the court also denied the Plaintiffs' class certification motion, based primarily on its rulings regarding standing.

Because the district court correctly determined that Plaintiffs Davis and Tracy lack standing, we affirm that portion of the district court's orders. In addition, the Wooden Plaintiffs failed to file their notice of appeal in a timely fashion, so we lack jurisdiction to consider their challenge to the district court's orders dismissing their claims. We conclude, however, that the district court erred by finding that Plaintiff Green lacks standing, and by rejecting on that basis Green's request to serve as a class representative. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's order entering summary judgment against Green for lack of standing, and vacate the denial of class certification to the extent it was based on the premise that Green lacks standing. The case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings regarding Green's claim consistent with this opinion.

I.
A.

We begin by laying out the undisputed facts of the case, starting with those facts relevant to the Tracy Plaintiffs' challenge to the freshman admission policies at the University of Georgia ("UGA").1

UGA is the flagship institution of Georgia's university system. Admission to UGA is competitive, and applications far exceed the number of available freshman seats. To assemble a class, the faculty admission committee, in conjunction with the admissions office, recommends a freshman admission policy each year. This policy is formally presented to UGA's president for approval, and thereafter is implemented by the admissions office.

Between 1990-1995, UGA's freshman admissions policy applied objective academic criteria differently depending upon whether an applicant characterized himself as "black" or "non-black." To be eligible for admission, an applicant had to meet certain pre-set minimums with respect to Scholastic Aptitude Test ("SAT") score, grade point average ("GPA"), and academic index ("AI").2 Under the 1990-95 policy, the minimums for black students were set lower than the minimums for non-black students. Specifically, to be eligible for admission into the Fall 1995 class, a black applicant would have to obtain at least an 800 SAT score, a 2.0 GPA, and a 2.0 academic index. By contrast, a non-black applicant would have to obtain at least a 980 SAT score, a 2.5 GPA, and a 2.4 academic index.

This was the regime when plaintiff Kirby Tracy (who is white) applied for admission to UGA's Fall 1995 Class. Tracy had a GPA of 3.47 and a total SAT score of 830. Because he did not meet the minimum SAT requirement for non-blacks, UGA denied his application. It is undisputed, however, that Tracy would have been eligible for admission under the criteria applied to black applicants.

After his rejection from UGA, Tracy enrolled at Georgia College. Two years later, in 1997, he applied and won admission to UGA as a transfer student. The transfer application was filed shortly after this lawsuit was filed.3 At the time of summary judgment in this case, Tracy remained a student at UGA.

Meanwhile, UGA -- concerned about the constitutionality of its dual-track admissions policy -- revised that policy in 1995 for the 1996 freshman class. With some minor modifications, that revised policy remained in effect at the time of summary judgment and appears to remain in effect today. The revised policy divides the admissions process into three stages. UGA selects the majority of its freshman class at an initial stage which applies objective academic criteria without regard to the applicant's race. At this initial stage (the "AI stage"), UGA admits automatically applicants whose academic indices and SAT scores are above a certain number. From the remaining applications, UGA selects for "further evaluation" a group of applicants whose academic indices are above a certain number and who meet minimum SAT score requirements. Applicants who fall below the minimum academic index or below the minimum SAT score requirement are automatically rejected. To reiterate, race is not a consideration at the AI stage.

For each applicant placed in the pool for further evaluation, UGA calculates a Total Student Index ("TSI"). The TSI is based on a combination of weighted academic and demographic factors. It is only at this stage that UGA, under its current policy, expressly considers an applicant's race.4 Applicants whose TSI scores meet a pre-set threshold are admitted automatically, while applicants whose scores fall below a pre- set minimum are rejected. Applicants whose TSI scores fall between those numbers are then passed on to a third stage, where they are evaluated on an individual basis by admissions officers. This is the "edge read" or "ER" stage. At this final stage, all applicants still in the pool start with a score of zero, and ER readers look for qualities that might not have been apparent at the AI and TSI stages. Applicants who receive an ER rating above a certain number are admitted, while those below that number are rejected. Race is not designated as a factor at the ER stage, although the Plaintiffs contend that race is nevertheless taken into account in determining an ER score.

Two Plaintiffs in this case sought admission under the post-1995 revised policy (Tracy, as noted above, sought admission under the superseded 1990-95 policy). Plaintiff Ashley Davis, who is white, applied for admission to the 1996 Fall freshman class at UGA. She had a 980 SAT score, a 2.94 GPA, and a 2.21 academic index. Because her academic index was below 2.30 (the cut-off to advance to the TSI stage), UGA denied her application at the initial AI stage. It therefore did not compute a TSI for her, and did not consider race in rejecting her. Davis eventually enrolled as a freshman at the University of Tennessee, where she remained at the time of summary judgment. She has disclaimed any interest in transferring to UGA, and there is no indication that she would re-apply under the freshman admissions policy.

Plaintiff Craig Green, who is white, unsuccessfully sought admission to the Fall 1997 UGA freshman class. For the 1997 freshman class, UGA required an AI of 2.50 or above to be admitted at the initial AI stage, while applicants with an AI below 2.25 were rejected at that stage. Students whose AIs were between 2.25 and 2.50 proceeded to the TSI phase of consideration. Green was among that group of applicants, with an AI of 2.39 and a SAT equivalency score of 1170-90.

In calculating a TSI score for applicants to the 1997 freshman class, UGA awarded 0.5 points under the category "Demographic Factors" to applicants who self-classified themselves as non-caucasian.5 Applicants who did not do so, such as Green, did not receive the 0.5 point credit.

After sorting applicants under the TSI process, UGA offered admission to all candidates with a TSI score of 4.40 or higher. Applicants with a TSI score below 3.79 were rejected, while applicants whose TSI scores were between 3.79 and 4.39 proceeded on to the final ER stage. Because of the 0.5 point credit given non-white applicants, however, white applicants were effectively held to a more rigorous standard. In practice, awarding the 0.5 point credit to non-white applicants meant that white applicants needed a TSI score of at least 4.40 to be admitted at this stage, while non-white applicants needed only a 3.90. Similarly, to avoid outright rejection at the TSI phase and proceed on to the ER phase, a white applicant effectively needed a TSI score of at least 3.79 TSI points, while a non-white applicant -- because of the 0.5 point boost -- needed only 3.29.

Green received a TSI score of 3.89, which included credits for his parents' educational level, his Georgia residency, his relatively high GPA/SAT equivalency score, and his male gender. On the basis of that score he was neither admitted nor rejected at the TSI stage, but instead went into the Edge Read pool. If Green had designated himself as non-white, his TSI score would have been 4.39 -- 0.5 points higher than it was, but still just barely below the 4.40 threshold for automatic admission. Accordingly, Green would have proceeded to the ER stage regardless of whether he received a 0.5 point credit due to his race.

At the ER stage,...

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