BOSTON

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Equal Opportunity has asked Massachusetts's public colleges and universities to supply detailed information about their admission policies. The center was instrumental in advancing Proposition 209 in California, and Initiative 200 in Washington. It also represented the plaintiffs in the Hopwood case in Texas. Headed by Linda Chavez, the director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights under President Reagan, the center is a vocal affirmative-action critic. It has studied seven university systems since 1996 -- including state schools in California, Washington, Colorado, North Carolina, and Michigan, as well as the U.S. service academies at West Point and Annapolis. In virtually all of the cases, the center claimed that the institutions -- particularly the flagship campuses -- gave admissions preference to minority applicants.

Under the auspices of Massachusetts's public records law, the center wrote to each of the state's thirteen four-year, public undergraduate schools asking them to provide information about student SAT scores, grade-point averages, and racial compositions.

None of the institutions has fully replied, center officials said. A spokeswoman for the state's board of higher education said the office is working with the schools to answer the requests.

Although officials with the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education said the state's public colleges do not use race as a preferential factor in admissions, the board does encourage schools to recruit a diverse population of students.