Presumably, UM doesn’t redact candidates’ names from school transcripts or from the application itself. Given that, it isn’t too hard for admissions officer to relate a candidate’s Asian name to his race.
Universities avowedly and openly say they give admissions preferences to candidates who foster diversity as they define it, which includes race and socioeconomic factors. Courts allow such policies as more or less compliant with the US Constitution.
In some ways, that’s a good thing. It has positives, no question.
So, why deny that it exists when someone points out the downside of such policies? There are only so many slots in any given freshman class. Slots allocated to certain students for diversity related reasons are necessarily denied to others who don’t satisfy such criteria.
And, if diversity goals could be met by applying the same admissions standards to everyone, then they would be. Those goals can’t be met by applying the same standards, so universities apply different standards in some cases and this is openly stated by universities. It’s not a big secret.
As for UMich’s stats, they are not as high as you think. A 35 ACT is not “average” for U Mich and would not be average at any university that I know of.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=379