Harvard University to defend admissions practices in trial that begins today

[New Person]

Case will be tracked closely by schools, legal observers believe case will end up in Supreme Court
The Associated Press · Posted: Oct 15, 2018 8:28 AM ET | Last Updated: an hour ago

This rally Sunday in Boston was held to support the plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
A lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in Harvard University's admissions process is heading to trial in Boston's Federal Court.

The group Students for Fair Admissions has accused the Ivy League school of bias against Asian-American applicants, saying it holds them to a higher standard than students of other races.

Harvard denies any discrimination and says it considers race as one of many factors when considering applicants.

Both sides will present their cases to U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs starting today.

• U.S. Justice Department backs discrimination suit against Harvard

• Asian-American plaintiffs are 'pawns' in affirmative action lawsuit, says professor

The lawsuit was filed in 2014 and carries implications for many other U.S. colleges that say they consider race to admit a diverse mix of students.

The case already has pulled back the curtain on aspects of Harvard's secretive admissions process, including a "personal rating" that measures certain character traits.

A look at the case and what to expect:

Who's involved
Students for Fair Admissions is a non-profit led by Edward Blum, a legal strategist who argues schools should not consider race in admissions. The group is based in Arlington, Va., and says it has more than 20,000 members, including at least some Asian-Americans who were rejected from Harvard.

Affirmative action activist Edward Blum, founder of Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), speaks to reporters at Sunday's rally. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
Blum previously helped co-ordinate a lawsuit accusing the University of Texas of discriminating against white students. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and upheld the school's consideration of race in 2016.

Harvard, one of the nation's most selective colleges, is defending the "holistic" review process it uses to pick from thousands of applicants a year. It considers factors from grades to geography, but also race, a tricky topic for a school that has struggled to reflect the nation's growing diversity.

Harvard says it has made strides in that area but must be able to consider race in order to continue progress.

The main arguments
The lawsuit accuses Harvard of imposing tougher standards for Asian-American applicants and says it discriminates against them using a "personal rating" category.

It also alleges Harvard practises "racial balancing," saying the school works to maintain a certain distribution of each race on campus, which in past cases was ruled unconstitutional.

Officials at Harvard University, shown in this March 17, 2017, file photo, are likely to point to the rise in Asian-American students through the years in their defence. (Charles Krupa/Associated Press)
The group's case partly relies on an analysis of Harvard admissions records by Duke University economist Peter Arcidiacono, who found that Asian-Americans bring the strongest academic records but are admitted at the lowest rate. He also found that while Asian-Americans receive strong personal rating scores from alumni interviewers, they are consistently dealt lower scores in that area from the admissions office.

Harvard denies the accusations and says the group has failed to provide any concrete evidence of discrimination. University leaders say race is considered only in the narrow way that has been upheld in earlier Supreme Court cases, and they note that Harvard's share of Asian-Americans has grown in recent years, reaching 23 per cent of the current freshman class.

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School officials see the lawsuit as an attack on their ability to build a diverse campus, and vowed to defend the consideration of race for schools across the U.S.

Their defence partly relies on an analysis by David Card, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who found no evidence of discrimination in Harvard's admissions records.

What's at stake?
The case follows a series of previous lawsuits challenging whether colleges can consider the race of applicants, a practice that generally has been upheld. Dozens of schools continue to factor race into admissions and will closely watch to see if their own practices are deemed fair or could be put into jeopardy.

For observers, the case is expected to shine a light on Harvard's closely guarded admissions process. The judge allowed Harvard to redact many details from court documents, but they could be uncovered in trial testimony. There could be new revelations, for example, about preferences Harvard gives to children of alumni or donors, and a so-called "Z-List" that offers deferred admission to certain students who don't get in through the typical process.

• 'Black listed': A Toronto-area principal is transferring schools following accusations of racial profiling

• Cambridge University's women-only college to accept transgender students

Ultimately, Harvard believes its campus diversity is at stake and says it couldn't achieve a rich mix of students without considering race. Its leaders also believe the suit threatens the flexibility that other courts have granted schools to build the type of student population that's best for their own campus.

Students for Fair Admissions believes the case could fix a system that places unfair weight on race, primarily at the expense of academically talented Asian-Americans. The group's suit demands that Harvard make admissions decisions without any knowledge of students' race, and it asks for a broader ruling that the use of race in education is a civil rights violation.

The case is going to a bench trial, meaning it will be decided by a judge, not a jury. But the case isn't likely to end there. An appeal is expected, potentially setting the stage for another Supreme Court case.

 

[zhangulei]

公共教育，哪怕是私校教育考虑race作为录取学生重要的因素。
完全是纳粹的前引。允许这么干，用不了多久，就可以以类似借口剥夺亚裔人士的更多权力。

太危险。

 

[New Person]

Harvard students gathered in Phillip Brooks House to make signs for a march planned for Sunday in support of affirmative action

As Harvard University prepares to defend its selective, highly secretive admissions process in a Boston courtroom Monday, outside groups are marshaling their forces, with protesters descending on the city, and a rally planned outside the university’s iron gates.

The high-stakes case accusing Harvard of discriminating against Asian-American applicants has reopened a sharp national debate over race, equity, and merit. And on campus, it has forced students to confront uneasy and intensely personal questions about racial diversity, privilege, and their place at the Ivy League institution.

“It’s forcing me to talk about race in a way that I’ve not done,” said Priyanka Kaura, 27, an Indian-American graduate student from Pennsylvania at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Kaura said she supports affirmative action, and is careful about acknowledging there may be concerns about bias against Asian applicants, especially when discussing the issue with other Asian-Americans. “I haven’t lost any close relationships yet.”

“It’s on everybody’s mind,” added Victor Agbafe, 22, a senior whose parents emigrated from Nigeria, and who grew up in Dallas and Wilmington, N.C. “I think the case has the potential to be huge.”

In animated — sometimes fraught — conversations among friends in dining halls and dorm rooms, in Facebook groups and private texts, in classroom discussions and group gatherings, Harvard’s students are grappling with the issues raised by the lawsuit.

Unlike previous affirmative action lawsuits that primarily hinged on if race-conscious admissions practices benefited black and Hispanic students while hurting white students, this case pivots on Asian-American applicants.

The lawsuit was filed by Students for Fair Admissions, a group representing Asian-Americans who allege Harvard’s admissions policy discriminates against them. As proof, the organization points to six years of Harvard admissions data that its experts argue indicates Asian-Americans were rated lower on personal qualities, such as courage and kindness, which hurt their chances of gaining admission. The group also alleges Harvard limits the number of Asian-American students it admits every year, a practice called racial-balancing, which is unlawful.

Harvard denies any discrimination and insists its admissions practices are legal and ensure that all students learn on a diverse campus and are exposed to different ideas and classmates from various backgrounds.

At Harvard, 21 percent of students are Asian, nearly 12 percent are Hispanic, 8 percent are black; the majority of the campus is white.

The university is also quick to point out that Students for Fair Admissions is led by Edward Blum. He is a conservative white scholar who unsuccessfully challenged the University of Texas admissions process and led an effort that unraveled parts of the Voting Rights Act.

Yet Harvard administrators worry the trial could open up fault lines among students and alumni at the country’s oldest and most prestigious institution of higher education. The trial is likely to raise questions about who is deemed worthy and special enough for one of the few slots at a university heralded for educating future presidents, corporate titans, poets, and prizewinners. Of some 42,000 applicants, Harvard enrolls just 1,600 or so freshmen every year. Entry itself is a privilege and viewed as a ticket to future success.

Students for Fair Admissions “is likely to make provocative assertions that will receive public attention and cause some to question our admissions practices,” Harvard president Lawrence Bacow wrote in an e-mail to the Harvard community last week. “I would hope all of us recognize, however, that we are members of one community — and will continue to be so long after this trial is in the rearview mirror. What kind of community we will be, however, will be determined by how we treat each other the next few weeks.”

Some Asian-American students say they already feel conflicted about the lawsuit. They support diversity on campus, but some say the case has reinforced warnings they received from parents and counselors in high school that they had to get far better grades than their peers, jump into leadership roles, and appear less stereotypically Asian in their applications to earn a spot in the most elite colleges.

Rainbow Yeung, a senior majoring in molecular and cellular biology at Harvard who rushes between post-graduate job hunting and her leadership responsibilities at her house, said she worries Asians have been neglected in US history and American media. And she doesn’t want their concerns about potential bias in admissions to also be silenced.

“I am scared of what the results of the suit might mean for affirmative action,” Yeung said. “However, I just don’t want Asian students to be suffering from negative consequences due to our race.”

Ivy Yan, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 2015 and is now a graduate student there, has found herself at odds with Harvard administrators. She fought Harvard’s efforts to squash a union for graduate students and as an undergraduate rallied alumni and other student groups after she felt the university’s response to e-mail threats received by many Asian-American female students was inadequate.

But now, Yan is helping organize a rally Sunday in favor of affirmative action and is bringing together many of Harvard’s supporters.

“I am firmly anti-Blum, but not pro-Harvard,” she said.

Still, she understands why many Chinese-Americans, especially those who immigrated more recently, are backing this lawsuit. Even her younger sister questioned the need for affirmative action until recently, Yan said.

“The people on the anti-side are my people,” she said. “This is the American dream for many immigrants and the admissions process — it takes into account something you don’t really understand, and it can be alienating.”

The case against Harvard’s affirmative action policy is generally seen as a conservative cause and even gained support from the Justice Department under the Trump administration. Yet some conservative students acknowledge that admission to the elite school is based on a complicated formula, with race just one factor among many. Star athletes, children of financial donors, students whose parents attended Harvard, and applicants from under-represented states all get special consideration.

“Who got here and how they got here — everybody has things that got them here,” said Conor Healy, a senior from Canada who last year invited controversial sociologist Charles Murray to speak at Harvard amid protests from minority students. “It’s personal. . . . I knew that when I applied, nobody was entitled to a spot . . . and they paid a lot of attention to personal details of individuals. It’s just not straightforward.”

Healy said private institutions should be able to dictate their admissions standards.

Some students, though, feel Harvard does too little to encourage diversity and that if it loses the case, there will be even fewer black and Hispanic students on campus.

As Paola Martinez waited last week for a movie screening at Harvard’s newly renovated Smith Campus Center, where red and orange modern couches are surrounded by ceiling-to-floor glass windows, she scoffed at the implication in the lawsuit that Harvard has too few Asian-American students.

Martinez, 37, grew up in the Dominican Republic and takes classes and works at the Harvard Extension School, a program for adult learners. She said black and Latino students and faculty are rarer than white and Asian-Americans.

This lawsuit is an effort to “keep students of color out of environments where they can succeed,” Martinez said. “At least give us a chance to prove that we’re smart enough and that we could do something.”

Andrea Loera, 23, a Latina who grew up in Texas and is a graduate student at Havard Law School, said she worries that many on-campus discussions about the lawsuit are being held among students of color, instead of the broader community.

A teach-in she attended on a rainy evening last week drew more than 50 Harvard students; most were Asian and other minorities, with just a handful of white students.

Loera said she understands that some students of color are concerned about drawing too much attention to themselves, especially around a case that questions whether they belong at Harvard.

“You already feel like an outsider here,” Loera said. “It becomes a personal topic so fast. And it’s so hard to talk about it as a minority, especially in a school that is so white.”

Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at deirdre.fernandes@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @fernandesglobe.

 

[GuardianAngel]

Case will be tracked closely by schools, legal observers believe case will end up in Supreme Court
The Associated Press · Posted: Oct 15, 2018 8:28 AM ET | Last Updated: an hour ago

This rally Sunday in Boston was held to support the plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
A lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in Harvard University's admissions process is heading to trial in Boston's Federal Court.

The group Students for Fair Admissions has accused the Ivy League school of bias against Asian-American applicants, saying it holds them to a higher standard than students of other races.

Harvard denies any discrimination and says it considers race as one of many factors when considering applicants.

Both sides will present their cases to U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs starting today.

• U.S. Justice Department backs discrimination suit against Harvard

• Asian-American plaintiffs are 'pawns' in affirmative action lawsuit, says professor

The lawsuit was filed in 2014 and carries implications for many other U.S. colleges that say they consider race to admit a diverse mix of students.

The case already has pulled back the curtain on aspects of Harvard's secretive admissions process, including a "personal rating" that measures certain character traits.

A look at the case and what to expect:

Who's involved
Students for Fair Admissions is a non-profit led by Edward Blum, a legal strategist who argues schools should not consider race in admissions. The group is based in Arlington, Va., and says it has more than 20,000 members, including at least some Asian-Americans who were rejected from Harvard.

Affirmative action activist Edward Blum, founder of Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), speaks to reporters at Sunday's rally. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
Blum previously helped co-ordinate a lawsuit accusing the University of Texas of discriminating against white students. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and upheld the school's consideration of race in 2016.

Harvard, one of the nation's most selective colleges, is defending the "holistic" review process it uses to pick from thousands of applicants a year. It considers factors from grades to geography, but also race, a tricky topic for a school that has struggled to reflect the nation's growing diversity.

Harvard says it has made strides in that area but must be able to consider race in order to continue progress.

The main arguments
The lawsuit accuses Harvard of imposing tougher standards for Asian-American applicants and says it discriminates against them using a "personal rating" category.

It also alleges Harvard practises "racial balancing," saying the school works to maintain a certain distribution of each race on campus, which in past cases was ruled unconstitutional.

Officials at Harvard University, shown in this March 17, 2017, file photo, are likely to point to the rise in Asian-American students through the years in their defence. (Charles Krupa/Associated Press)
The group's case partly relies on an analysis of Harvard admissions records by Duke University economist Peter Arcidiacono, who found that Asian-Americans bring the strongest academic records but are admitted at the lowest rate. He also found that while Asian-Americans receive strong personal rating scores from alumni interviewers, they are consistently dealt lower scores in that area from the admissions office.

Harvard denies the accusations and says the group has failed to provide any concrete evidence of discrimination. University leaders say race is considered only in the narrow way that has been upheld in earlier Supreme Court cases, and they note that Harvard's share of Asian-Americans has grown in recent years, reaching 23 per cent of the current freshman class.

• Trinity Western students won't have to sign covenant banning sex outside straight marriage

• 3 legal reactions to the Supreme Court's Trinity Western University decision

School officials see the lawsuit as an attack on their ability to build a diverse campus, and vowed to defend the consideration of race for schools across the U.S.

Their defence partly relies on an analysis by David Card, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who found no evidence of discrimination in Harvard's admissions records.

What's at stake?
The case follows a series of previous lawsuits challenging whether colleges can consider the race of applicants, a practice that generally has been upheld. Dozens of schools continue to factor race into admissions and will closely watch to see if their own practices are deemed fair or could be put into jeopardy.

For observers, the case is expected to shine a light on Harvard's closely guarded admissions process. The judge allowed Harvard to redact many details from court documents, but they could be uncovered in trial testimony. There could be new revelations, for example, about preferences Harvard gives to children of alumni or donors, and a so-called "Z-List" that offers deferred admission to certain students who don't get in through the typical process.

• 'Black listed': A Toronto-area principal is transferring schools following accusations of racial profiling

• Cambridge University's women-only college to accept transgender students

Ultimately, Harvard believes its campus diversity is at stake and says it couldn't achieve a rich mix of students without considering race. Its leaders also believe the suit threatens the flexibility that other courts have granted schools to build the type of student population that's best for their own campus.

Students for Fair Admissions believes the case could fix a system that places unfair weight on race, primarily at the expense of academically talented Asian-Americans. The group's suit demands that Harvard make admissions decisions without any knowledge of students' race, and it asks for a broader ruling that the use of race in education is a civil rights violation.

The case is going to a bench trial, meaning it will be decided by a judge, not a jury. But the case isn't likely to end there. An appeal is expected, potentially setting the stage for another Supreme Court case.

名义上是为了黑人墨西哥人平权，
实际上是对亚洲人的种族歧视。

支持对这些学校的起诉