Demystifying Harvard’s Admission Process
Lead trial counsel William F. Lee ’72 recently sat down to discuss the SFFA v. Harvard admissions case and the Harvard admissions process with Chief DEI Officer Sherri Ann Charleston in a forum hosted by Harvard’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB). Lee is the Harvard Corporation’s senior fellow and a lecturer at Harvard law school.
See the Harvard Gazette recap here.
See the Harvard Crimson recap here.
“If I thought there was affirmative discrimination against Asian Americans, I would not have been the lead trial lawyer,” Lee said.
He also discussed Harvard’s responsibility to society.
“How we address diversity, inclusion, and inequality are critical to our society…We play a role in how we educate our students so that they’re able to go out into the world and encounter diverse communities, people with different attitudes, people with different perspectives, and have meaningful and fruitful relationships. So, it’s much more important than just us…”
Lee talked numbers, citing the admissions trial which revealed that there were 15,000 “fully qualified” applicants each year vying for approximately 1,600 spots.
“No one’s getting admitted who isn’t in that group of 15,000 fully qualified people … and I think it’s unfair to assume that people of a specific demographic are somehow unqualified — because they are all qualified,” he said.
“If you’re an applicant today of any ilk, you’re disadvantaged by the number of people who are applying who are extraordinarily well-qualified. But that’s different than discriminating against anybody, and it’s different than discriminating on the basis of race.”
In terms of race-neutral alternatives, according to The Gazette, “A committee chaired by…[former FAS Dean] Michael Smith, which also included Rakesh Khurana, Danoff Dean of Harvard College, and William R. Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions, reviewed [options]…to determine whether [any policy] would still permit Harvard to achieve its educational goals as well as build the diverse learning community central to its educational mission if race were not taken into consideration.”
“The answer is, it would not,” said Lee.
As for diversity based on race vs. diversity of thought, Lee explained, “There are some people who believe that our efforts to assemble a diverse community, and promote the interest of diversity and inclusion and equity, are somehow in conflict with free speech and free thought, which have driven universities and their success for many years. I want you to know that, at least I believe, that’s just not true.’”
