CHICAGO — The fight over affirmative-action programs designed to bring racial diversity to university campuses may be headed to Illinois.
A Washington-based group whose research has fueled attacks on affirmative action in California and other states acknowledged earlier this month that it is turning its attention to this state's four-year institutions.
"Illinois is on our list," says Joseph Beard, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative think tank.
Thus far, Illinois has escaped major battles arising from the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1978 Bakke decision, which lets schools count membership in a racial minority as a "plus" in admissions decisions.

Critics say that decision unfairly lowers admissions standards for minorities and thus amounts to reverse discrimination.
Sweeping freedom-of-information requests from the center have been presented to the University of Illinois and other four-year schools around the state. Questions touch on race, gender, test scores, graduation rates, and a host of other factors that go into deciding who gets into college.
Findings gleaned from similar surveys have been given to leaders of ballot initiative campaigns that successfully ended affirmative action programs at universities in California and Washington state. Such data also have been given to critics who filed lawsuits against affirmative-action plans at the University of Texas and the University of Michigan.
Some university officials in Illinois acknowledge they do consider race in making decisions about who gets in.
"It is factored into the decision as per Bakke," says University of Illinois spokeswoman Susan Trebach. "Our intention is to enhance the educational environment for everyone."