OCR recognizes that colleges and universities are under a lot of legal and political pressure to stop using racial and ethnic factors in admission," Clegg commented. "[In response,] the agency wants to intimidate colleges and universities to continue using these preferences." (Black Issues in Higher Education, 1999)

The National Association of Scholars, while raising doubts about the reasoning behind the OCR document titled "Nondiscrimination in High-Stakes Testing," pointed to what it believes is hypocrisy from higher education gurus who had previously undervalued the use of the test scores.

It goes without saying that these guidelines are outrageous," commented the association's president, Dr. Stephen H. Balch, in 1999. "But it's hard not to see this as the educational establishment's being hoisted by its own petard. (Black Issues in Higher Education, 1999)

For some time now," Balch continued in a statement released shortly after OCR began distributing the guidelines, "our best universities...
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