Test 2

The next chapter in the continuing saga of Harvard versus Students For Fair Admissions:

In short, he suggested that admissions officers had expressed an unconscious bias: “It doesn’t make them evil, it makes them human.” (In a recent court filing, Harvard’s lawyers said that the plaintiff had failed to provide any evidence that admissions officers “bore unconscious bias.”)

Mortara contended that Harvard had not explained why black and Hispanic applicants tended to get higher personal ratings than did Asian-American applicants. He also questioned why Harvard had recently revamped its written guidelines to emphasize that admissions officers should not consider an applicant’s race when assigning personal ratings. In one of several references to the infamous equation in George Orwell’s 1984, Mortara said, “It’s 2+2=5. They’re saying, ‘Trust us, believe us.’”

As Mortara wrapped up his remarks, Judge Burroughs rested her chin on her fists. She asked him several specific questions. One was why the plaintiff had presented no witnesses who claimed that they had been unfairly denied admission to Harvard.

There was no requirement to do so, Mortara said: “Statistics alone can prove our case.”

‘Truly Remarkable’

Moments later, William F. Lee, a lawyer for Harvard, also noted the absence of testimony from unsuccessful applicants. “The plaintiff’s failure to produce a single individual who claims to have suffered discrimination,” he said, “is truly remarkable.”

Lee and Seth P. Waxman, another lawyer for Harvard, reiterated their arguments from last fall. They said that diversity is essential to the university’s mission. That admissions officers consider race as one factor among many. That the racial composition of the freshman class varies from year to year. That there are no viable race-neutral alternatives to its admissions process. And that the university’s admissions officers do not discriminate against any applicant.

I studied and wrote about this topic at length during my graduate school career. As someone who works in higher education, and admissions specifically, I have been following these affirmative action cases very closely.

I can't speak for others (disclaimer here), but my belief is that so long as an institution is making admission decisions based on a variety of factors and not focusing on one thing (e.g. an applicant's racial or ethnic background), then there shouldn't be any trouble.

It's when an institution starts looking at making quotas for any type of student group and making one factor the focal point of the application that problems arise.