The majority of Harvard’s incoming class is nonwhite

https://www.bostonglobe.com ^ | 8/3/17 | Deirdre Fernandes

[BBell]

For the first time in Harvard University’s history, the majority of students accepted into the incoming freshman class are not white, a milestone for an institution that prides itself on educating future presidents, CEOs, and world leaders.

But Harvard’s push to broaden the diversity of its student ranks comes as the Trump administration intensifies its focus on affirmative action policies and suggests it will investigate how colleges shape the racial makeup of their campuses.

The US Justice Department is preparing to redirect resources from its civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, The New York Times reported this week.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration said it had no broad plans to investigate whether college and university admissions programs discriminate against students based on race and that it was looking into a single complaint from a coalition of Asian-American groups filed in 2015. The coalition filed an administrative complaint against Harvard University, alleging that the school and other Ivy League institutions are using racial quotas that shut out high-scoring Asians.

Still, news about the administration’s interest in affirmative action policies caught colleges off-guard and raised worries in academia and among civil rights advocates.

On Wednesday, several universities in Massachusetts defended their admissions practices and said they meet legal requirements. They stressed that building a campus of students from different races, places, and a variety of experiences was crucial to their academic mission.

[faithhopecharity]

its a generalization but still contains a great deal of truth.....ask any teacher...
the Asians (especially Chinese, some Japanese, etc) go home and study.
whereas many of the other students go out and play, party, get stoned, or all of the above

not 100 percent accurate but sufficiently correct to explain a lot of what’s going on

[Will88]

It is because they are discriminated against. Based on test scores they should be at a much higher percentage. And IMO that is what it should be based on - test scores.

That seems to have gone full circle. Decades ago the most prestigious schools picked many of their students from top prep schools and high schools. Standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT were introduced to give kids from less prestigious schools a chance to show their ability and give them a better chance of acceptance.

Now the same standardized tests are considered discriminatory since the wrong groups don't perform so well on them. Thus, affirmative action.

[WatchungEagle]

Reagan was dead wrong about that and that kind of nihilistic attitude is what brought us to the current immigration crisis. Remember, Reagan was an amnesty fanatic who argued for an “open border” with Mexico in the 1979 debate with Bush Senior. We are living with the consequences of Reagan’s foolishness on immigration. The same kind foolish thinking is at work in your quote.

Of course it matters what the ethnic makeup an institution is, especially an elite institution that wields so much power in our society.

[dfwgator]

You’re comparing Mexicans with Asians?

[Stingray51]

I totally agree but I also think that the world has changed such that many employers looking to hire college graduates are no longer as wow-ed as they once were by a Harvard degree. Personally, I would be a lot more impressed with a guy who worked his tail off and had top of the class grades at a state university (or really anywhere) than a middle or bottom of the heap guy at Harvard.

[TheTimeOfMan]

I employ technical people. Mostly developers but hardware types also. I give exactly zero weight for a degree except for projects with particular liability issues (i.e., CYA) - and even then it is still completely secondary to how well the applicant does on OUR tests.

For general staff many ex Marines will be far more valuable than recent college grads. Ivy league? pffft.

[SaraJohnson]

It’s called reverse discrimination. Harvard is so proud.

[Phillyred]

I agree. There are soooo many Christian McCaffreys out there who will never even make a college squad...and so many more who won’t waste their time working on skill positions because the prejudice is impenetrable. McCaffrey is just blessed his father was an NFL star. It disgusts me that Zach Zenner is not starting RB in the NFL. Not even drafted after posting 3 straight 2000 yard seasons in college!