Posted on 08/06/2017 6:16:42 PM PDT by TigerClaws
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A Justice Department inquiry into how race influences admissions at Harvard University has left selective colleges bracing for new scrutiny of practices that have helped boost diversity levels to new highs across the Ivy League.
Harvard and other top-tier colleges closely guard the inner workings of their admissions offices, but they defend approaches that consider an applicant's race among other factors as a way to bring a diverse mix of perspectives to campus. While the schools believe they are on firm legal ground, experts say the investigation could inspire new challenges.
"They're pulling the scab off a wound that was healing," said Anthony Carnevale, who has studied affirmative action programs and leads Georgetown University's Center for Education and the Workforce. "This could erupt in a bunch more cases."
At the eight Ivy League colleges including Harvard, Yale and Princeton, the number of U.S. minority students in all incoming classes grew by 17 percent between 2010 and 2015, while overall enrollment in those classes grew by less than 2 percent, according to the latest federal data. By 2015, minorities accounted for more than 43 percent of all incoming students in the Ivy League, up from 37 percent in 2010.
The trend partly reflects the demographics of an increasingly diverse nation, but the schools also consider race for reasons including a desire to reverse historically low numbers of minorities at elite universities that in some cases began admitting nonwhite students only in the last 75 years.
"We're aiming for diversity on our campus and we're achieving it," said Christopher Eisgruber, president of Princeton University. "Universities have a compelling interest in pursuing diversity in their student bodies through a holistic assessment of factors."
Eisgruber said he is not surprised by the "continuing political controversy," but it would not be appropriate for him to comment on the Justice Department investigation.
At Brown University, the inquiry was a topic of discussion last week, school spokesman Brian Clark said.
"The courts have held that colleges and universities may act affirmatively to achieve the educational goals at the core of our academic excellence at Brown," Clark said in a statement. "Through our race-conscious admission practices, Brown assembles the diverse range of perspectives and experiences essential for a learning and research community that prepares students to thrive in a complex and changing world."
Word of the investigation startled some who thought the affirmative action debate was settled after the U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas. That case was brought by a white student who contended she was rejected from the school while black students with lower grades were admitted.
In the Harvard case, investigators are looking into a 2015 complaint brought by a coalition of 64 Asian-American groups that allege the school uses racial quotas to admit students and discriminates against Asian-Americans by holding them to a higher standard. The Justice Department said it's revisiting the case because it was left unresolved by the previous administration.
Harvard said its practices are legally sound.
"Harvard remains committed to enrolling diverse classes of students," Harvard spokeswoman Rachael Dane said. "Harvard's admissions process considers each applicant as a whole person, and we review many factors, consistent with the legal standards established by the U.S. Supreme Court."
Despite the growth in the nonwhite student populations, the schools acknowledge their diversity efforts are aimed largely at drawing students from underrepresented races and ethnicities, a category that often includes blacks and Latinos but not Asian-American students.
Princeton's Eisgruber said the last decade has seen a significant increase in the number of Asian-American students on campus, while growth among other minorities has been "more modest." The trend has been similar across the Ivy League, where U.S. minority students other than Asian-Americans made up only 24 percent of incoming students in 2015. By contrast, those minority groups made up 35 percent of the U.S. population last year, according to Census estimates.
Some who oppose race-conscious policies have said they're encouraged by the Justice Department's inquiry, while supporters see it as political posturing by President Donald Trump's administration. Still, some advocates fear there could be a chilling effect among schools that will wonder if they'll face scrutiny next.
Natasha Warikoo, a scholar of race and education at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, said research has indicated some schools already have been backing away from race-conscious policies.
"I think that has to do with the legal context and this fear of being hit with a lawsuit, and the Justice Department just adds a layer to that," Warikoo said.
Others said the Supreme Court has set a clear precedent upholding colleges' right to consider race.
"The foundations are set and they are longstanding," said Art Coleman, managing partner of the Education Counsel consulting firm and a former deputy assistant Secretary of the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights under President Bill Clinton. "My hope is that it would do nothing to affect institutions that are pursuing issues of diversity and inclusion on campus."
Harvard and other top-tier colleges closely guard the inner workings of their admissions offices, but they defend approaches that consider an applicant’s race among other factors as a way to bring a diverse mix of perspectives to campus.
Say what???? A DIVERSE MIX OF PERSPECTIVES????
Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!
I have several close friends who are “mixed” married couples. One spouse is an American-born white person and the other is of European descent but was born in Latin America. Most of their kids are so fair-skinned that they make Scandinavians look swarthy, but you can be damn sure they’re checking off that “Hispanic” box when it comes time for college admissions and job applications.
And I know a blond boy who always checked African American on everything because he was from South Africa. No one can say he wasn’t African American.
Some of the most incompetent people I’ve ever worked with were minorities from Ivy League schools.
They were peter principled in grade school.
No doubt. Liberals love to waste money. They think it literally grows on trees.
...”Asians lose out. They vote for Democrats. Why should we care?”...
We should care because they are some of the smartest scientific minds on the planet. If we want solutions to horrific, inherited disease, etc., we need the minds which can figure those things out. In addition, eliminating people based on skin color is fascism, communism and tyranny. It is not related to education. The Ivy Leagues have been politicized in their quest for government power for more years than I can remember. They are all about the money which comes into their huge endowment which may come mostly from the top, wealthy 1%, who want to be the puppet masters over this nation in order to guarantee that freedom will not allow others to challenge their power and wealth. They own the Ivy-Leagues and if you want your child to be a normal, thinking, learning individual who cannot be convinced that 2 and 2 are 5, and who will stand up for truth against the tyrannical left, do not send them to an Ivy League, no matter whether or not their skin color would get them in. I hope people will not be duped by the long past excellent reputations of these schools, most of whom were founded out of Christian values. Somewhere along the way, bad people took over and destroyed their mission of education, turning it into a mirage. Their fake façade may be about to fall. The bad news is that too many non Ivy Leagues, especially state run schools, are trying hard to follow the Ivy League model. It cannot last without culture war. I just do not know how much longer that will take. The new discrimination against the brightest and best, based on skin color pollutes our lives and our society more than anything the EPA could ever think up and is sad and very disturbing. This is my opinion based on long years of being close to education.
The Chinese guys at work are all republicans and they tell me their friends and family are also. I was surprised.
The Chinese guys at work are all republicans and they tell me their friends and family are also. I was surprised.
A friend that went to a small state school worked with a Princeton grad; when they guy boasted about it, my friend said, “Yet here you are doing the same work as me”...
We should start calling Dems “kapos”
Good one!
I agree with your co-worker. I have always considered myself to be a “native American” because I was born here. AFAIK, I don’t have any American Indian blood.
It's time we had a dialog about why diversity is even a positive thing.
Because we all know it is not.
"Diversity" is merely code for "Too Many White People".
“So, whatever became of him? Probably chasing ambulances in Las Vegas now! ;)”
No, Trump replaced him as President.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.