AgreetoDisagree, you may not like opposition to affirmative action, but viewing it as inherently racist is hardly nonsensical. There's a much more nuanced argument there that you didn't acknowledge; it's easier to build up a straw man, though, I'm sure. It's certainly open to debate but there is a reasonable argument that 1) affirmative action draws distinctions based on race, with a lower standard in favor of URMs; thus someone who would ordinarily be admitted is now denied because of their race and someone who would not ordinarily be admitted is now admitted because of their race, 2) that the lower expectations of African Americans actually fuels internalizations of inferiority and the achievement gap. There is a very strong argument that AA is detrimental to race relations, the perception of the quality of URM grads, and can harm achievement of URMs by bringing AA students in who would be top students elsewhere to start, yet again, at the bottom of the barrel and have to work twice as hard to get ahead. You can surely disagree with these arguments, but you should probably at least give them a fair shake (and actually respond to them) before dismissing them as nonsensical. I can watch a superficial debate in a 90-second TV news segment; hopefully, we're a bit above that here. Anyway, not exactly an AA thread, but AgreetoDisagree doesn't exactly contribute enlightenment wherever he goes.
LawDog3, your comments were excellent on this thread. It's historically black; the number of white people matriculating won't take away the importance of that unique history and organizing mission. But HBCUs, particularly publicly-funded ones, must serve all the people of the state. A welcoming environment will improve the overall quality of the students, the public funding, and (I'd suggest) the education. One of the major arguments for affirmative action by schools like Michigan is the value of diversity of ethnicities and experiences; I'm not sure how that suddenly doesn't apply when we're talking about HBCUs.