HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

President Issues Statement on Diversity and Admissions

President Neil L. Rudenstine issued the following statement this week regarding a recent court decision about university admissions:

As you may know, a federal appeals court recently issued a major decision concerning diversity and university admissions. In Hopwood v. Texas, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the University of Texas may not use race as a factor in its law school admissions, despite the university's assertion of a compelling interest in fostering student diversity. Although the Hopwood decision does not apply directly to Harvard (or other institutions outside the Fifth Circuit's jurisdiction, which includes Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana), I have received a number of questions about its implications, and I want to offer a brief comment.

I believe that student diversity contributes powerfully and directly to the quality of education in colleges and universities. For more than a century, Harvard has placed a very high value on the creation of a residential community that brings together people with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. The breadth of views and voices in our university challenges each of us to think harder, to see the different sides of any issue, to confront our own assumptions and preconceptions, and to develop the kind of understanding that can come only when we are willing to test our ideas and arguments in the company of people with very different perspectives. It also gives us the chance to come to know, understand, and respect a remarkable variety of men and women whom we might not otherwise have the opportunity to learn from or even to meet.

The educational importance of student diversity has informed our admissions process for many decades, as I suggested in my recent report to the Board of Overseers. In choosing from among a pool of well-qualified applicants far larger than the number of available places, we take great care not to view people simply as the sum of their grades and test scores, however helpful those measures may be. We view applicants as individual human beings with a complex set of talents, qualities, interests, backgrounds, and experiences -- all of which bear on their record of achievement and their future promise, as well as their capacity to contribute to the educational experience of their class as a whole.

Race and ethnicity are among the many factors that our admissions officers and faculty members may take into account as part of the selection process. Harvard's policies in this regard antedated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Supreme Court's 1978 decision in the Bakke case. The federal appeals court in Hopwood, taking a position contrary to that of Justice Powell's pivotal opinion in Bakke, has now expressed the view that the consideration of race as a factor in the admissions process "is no more rational on its own terms" than considering "the physical size or blood type of applicants." I respectfully and strongly disagree. To my mind, race has historically been, and still remains, a significant factor that influences the process of growing up and living in the United States -- one that helps to shape the outlooks, experiences, and opportunities of millions of people.

I do not believe we can solve the persistent dilemma of race or ethnicity in American life simply by stating that we live -- or ought to live -- in a society where these characteristics have ceased to be significant. Our hope for progress lies in gradually narrowing the real gaps that continue to exist among many people of different races. That can be done only by creating fruitful ways of bringing people together -- at the very best, by educating them together.

To say that factors such as race and ethnicity may be taken into account in the admissions process does not mean that they should be elevated above all others. It does not imply efforts to achieve specific numerical targets through quotas. It means that a person's race or ethnicity may be considered as a potential "plus" factor among the many considerations that go into assessing each individual as a whole person: as someone whose "merit" cannot be measured purely in terms of numbers; as someone who has the potential to bring something distinctive and important to Harvard and to society.

Over many decades, this approach has made Harvard stronger both as an academic institution and as a human community. Progress has come slowly yet steadily -- not without interruption, not without friction and strain, but with impressive results. Now is a time to reaffirm our commitment to building upon that progress, and to sustaining an inclusive vision of higher education that I believe has been essential to our university and to the nation.