A former Harvard University president looks at the academic considerations that led him to become an extremely dedicated advocate of affirmative action in higher education, emphasizing his belief that student diversity offers a powerful way of creating the intellectual energy needed to promote greater knowledge as well as respect for difference.…

Might it be possible to achieve some or all of the goals of affirmative action through an approach based on an entirely different definition of the problem? This article says "yes." Its logic rests not upon an approach that creates informal quotas for identified groups, but instead on one aimed at discovering merit in people who are…

From its inception, affirmative action policies were created to improve the employment and/or educational opportunities for members of minority groups and women. Even today, however, the debate continues over the future of affirmative action. Proponents offer empirical evidence illustrating that affirmative action has been favorable in aiding…

The Supreme Court has established that diversity is a compelling state interest with regard to student body diversity in the higher education context, namely medical school and law school. Many educators and higher education organizations view racial and ethnic diversity among faculty as an important educational objective. Faculty diversity is…

This study examined whether female college freshmen have higher first-year retention rates when a greater percentage of their classes are taught by female faculty, especially students in science, math, and computer science (SMC) courses. Data from the admissions, course, and student files at Binghamton University (New York) were analyzed over a…

This is the eighth report by the Committee on Government Operations in the aftermath of the U.S. Department of Education's (DOE's) December 1990 attempt to ban race-specific scholarships, now called the Fiesta Bowl Fiasco. Based on a study by the Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee, this report finds the following: (1)…

Analyzes competing definitions of equal educational opportunity and determines that some state courts are required to give affirmative content to the term, but the Fourteenth Amendment is interpreted only as a limitation on state action. Relates this discussion to the inconclusive history of Defunis v. Odegaard regarding racially conditioned law…

Overviews current and recent preferential admissions cases other than DeFunis, particularly Bakke v. the Regents of the University of California, pointing up major issues in racial preferential admissions cases and concluding that universities and their professional schools, not the courts, must fashion and apply admissions policies responsive to…

Discusses the basic concepts and legal rationale of affirmative action; measures in some general terms the magnitude and severity of the problem that was intended to be solved or ameliorated by affirmative action programs; considers the actual results achieved and general trends set in motion by such programs; and weighs the implications of…

Presents a symposium on the case of reverse racial discrimination debated in Defunis v. Odegaard. Articles include: Racial Preference and Higher Education: The Larger Context; Affirmative Action and Equal Protection; and Constitutional Limitations on Admissions Procedures and Standards. (PG)

This paper reports on the development of a "change index" and its application in evaluating the relative performance of individual doctorate-granting universities in hiring and promoting women faculty. Employee data collected in the annual Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) by the National Center for Educational…

Sex bias in performance evaluations has been found in laboratory research as well as in a variety of organizational settings. To explore the effects of hiring practices on performance evaluations and other personnel decisions in an experimental analog of affirmative action, 154 female undergraduates rated a fictitious male or female college…

Discusses a study that analyzed responses to fictitious position-wanted ads of female and minority candidates for administrative positions. (JT)

Three unresolved affirmative action admissions problems are examined: the role of students in admissions decisions, the validity of racial quotas, and to what extent applicants are entitled to due process protection of the fourteenth ammendment. Included is a synopsis of DeFunis v. Odegaard, which upheld a reverse discrimination claim. (JT)

Traces resistance to affirmative action in universities, noting that the federal agencies have backed off from their tough stance, and concluding that, "With the exception of an increase in lower-level employment and the very few successfully negotiated class action suits, the status of women in the university has changed little." (JT)