4.2.12 WC: 191694
more complex and troubling realities of the Harvard College program as it surely must operate in practice. (I have no inside knowledge of how the Harvard College admissions process actually works; my speculations derive from reading the newspapers and from having publicly debated several Harvard officials on the Bakke issue.)
For example, Justice Powell was anything but clear about the degree to which an applicant’s race may be considered in university admissions decisions. At different points in his opinion, he articulates different formulations of the limits on explicit consideration of race in attempts to produce a diverse student body. He says that race must be “simply one element—to be weighed fairly against other elements—in the selection process”; that a school must place “all pertinent elements of diversity...on the same footing, for consideration, although not necessarily according them the same weight”; and that a school must “adhere to a policy of individual comparisons.”
Let us assume that Blank University seeks diversity by trying to include musicians, farm boys, Oklahomans among its entering class, but that it does not instruct its admissions officers to aim for a specified minimum number of musicians, farm boys and Oklahomans in each entering class. May Blank University direct its admissions officers—either explicitly or implicitly—to make certain that the number of blacks or Chicanos should not go beneath a certain approximate percentage in the class? Would that put race on a different “footing” than the other elements of diversity?
The answer to that question may well turn on whether one looks for legal guidance to the description of the Harvard program as quoted in Mr. Justice Powell’s opinion, or to the real world operation of the Harvard program as it probably works in practice. The following description certainly implies that race is not treated differently from other elements of diversity:
“In Harvard College admissions the Committee has not set target-quotas for the number of blacks, or of musicians, football players, physicists or Californians to be admitted in a given year. At the same time the Committee is aware that if Harvard College is to provide a truly heterogeneous environment that reflects the rich diversity of the United States, it cannot be provided without some attention to numbers. It would not make sense, for example, to have 10 or 20 students out of 1,100 whose homes are west of the Mississippi. Comparably, 10 or 20 black students could not begin to bring to their classmates and to each other the variety of points of view, backgrounds and experiences of blacks in the United States. Their small numbers might also create a sense of isolation among the black students themselves and thus make it more difficult for them to develop and achieve their potential. Consequently, when making its decisions, the Committee on Admissions is aware that there is some relationship between numbers and achieving the benefits to be derived from a diverse student body, and between numbers and providing a reasonable environment for those students admitted.
A closer look at the admissions program in practice might well reveal that the Harvard admissions officers, though interested in assuring geographic, occupational and musical diversity, really pay little or no attention to numbers: it would be no great crisis if one particular entering class at Harvard College had few or even no violinists, Oklahomans, or farm boys. (Football quarterbacks or basketball centers might be another thing altogether.) But these very same admissions officers may well be under instructions—explicit or implicit—to pay close attention to the number of blacks so as to assure that the proportion does not fall below a certain approximate floor.
298
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017385