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Q. and A.: Suing Harvard Over Admissions
[A statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard. People often rub its feet to bring good luck.]
A statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard. People often rub its feet to bring good luck. Hadley Green for The New York Times
A group suing Harvard [has demanded]( that it publicly release data on hundreds of thousands of applicants, saying the records show a pattern of discrimination against Asian-Americans going back decades.
We asked [Anemona Hartocollis]( our higher education reporter, about the suit.
When was this suit filed? What set it off? Who is the driving force behind it?
The lawsuit was filed by a group called Students for Fair Admissions, which was expressly created to challenge affirmative-action policies at colleges and universities. It is led by [Edward Blum]( a longtime activist against affirmative-action policies in areas ranging from education to voting rights.
Students for Fair Admissions went on to recruit more than a dozen Asian-American students, who had been rejected by Harvard, to participate. They are not named plaintiffs, but their names have been submitted to the court.
Are Asian-American groups and Mr. Blum an odd coupling? Â
Not necessarily. His lawsuit was followed only months later â in May 2015 â by a very similar complaint to federal civil rights authorities by a group called the Asian-American Coalition for Education. It bills itself as a national, nonpolitical, nonprofit organization fighting for Asian-American childrenâs equal-education rights. That group says its leaders began organizing Asian communities against the admissions policies of Ivy League schools in 2014.
In May 2015, they organized 64 Asian-American groups, including Chinese, Indian, Pakistani and Korean ones, [to file a civil-rights complaint]( with the Department of Education and the Department of Justice, asking for an investigation into what they contended were discriminatory practices at Harvard. The Justice Department has since confirmed that it is pursuing that investigation.
How is the complaint affecting Harvard? What has been its response? What do students, faculty and alumni make of it?
This is [very concerning to Harvard]( because it could upend decades of admissions policies. It may also expose the records of thousands of applicants and students.
The system the lawsuit is attacking is actually one that Harvard points to with pride. The university has a long and pioneering history of support for affirmative action, going back at least to when Derek Bok, appointed president of Harvard in 1971, embraced policies that became a national model.
Harvard has argued in a Supreme Court brief that while it sets no quotas for âblacks or of musicians, football players, physicists or Californians,â if it wants to achieve true diversity, it must pay some attention to the numbers. It embraces diversity of background, thoughts and ideas as a necessary component of an excellent education.
The Trump administration has taken an interest in the issue. What is it doing? What effect could their actions have on the suit?
The Times reported last summer that the Justice Department [was preparing to investigate]( affirmative action in college admissions, and the Trump administration then confirmed that it was investigating one complaint, which turned out to be the complaint by Asian-American groups against Harvard.
This is a welcome development for the plaintiffs in the Students for Fair Admissions case because having the federal government participate â regardless of how its investigation turns out â adds weight to the case. The government has already demonstrated its interest in the lawsuit this April, by filing a letter to the judge urging her to allow for the public disclosure of admissions records, with some identifying details redacted. âThe public funds Harvard at a cost of millions of dollars each year, and thus has a paramount interest in any proof of these allegations, Harvardâs responses to them, and the Courtâs resolution of this dispute,â the Justice Department lawyers wrote.
What happens next? When is the trial? Do legal experts believe that itâll end up on the Supreme Court docket?
The judge initially indicated the trial would take place next January, but after some jockeying among the lawyers for both sides, it seems likely that the trial could occur in October, in the middle of college application season.
Mr. Blum has a track record of pursuing cases to the Supreme Court. One of his best-known is [Fisher v. University of Texas]( a lawsuit by Abigail Fisher, a white applicant who said she was denied admission to the University of Texas because of her race. The United States Supreme Court ruled 4 to 3 in favor of the university in 2016, saying that it is constitutional to use race as one of many factors in admissions decisions.
Video
[The History of Affirmative Action](
By BARBARA MARCOLINI AND CHRIS CIRILLO
In the latest case involving affirmative action, the Justice Department is going to investigate possible discrimination against Asian-Americans in college admissions.
Commentary
[White Studentsâ Unfair Advantage in Admissions](
By ANDREW LAM
Thereâs no reason that whites should have a leg up â in effect, affirmative action â on Asians at elite colleges.
Joining the Class of 2022
High school seniors put down their acceptance deposits this week at their college of choice. Three of them shared their decision with us below, in collaboration with [Youth Radio]( an award-winning national network of journalists and artists.
[]
Kai Wright
Samaiyah Lewis, 18, Youth Radio
Chicago
Someone once asked me about the moment when I realized I was black.
I always knew to fill in the bubble for African-American whenever I took a survey as a kid, but I never thought too hard about my blackness. Fast-forward to today, Iâve decided I want the sense of belonging that will come from attending a historically black college (HBCU).
Even though I have lived on the South Side my entire life, Iâve always attended schools on the North Side, where there arenât many black and brown students.
My high school classmates seemed to view me as the sole representative of my race. I remember being called on to read the poems of Langston Hughes because I mastered the pronunciations of his colloquial euphemisms. I was asked if I shared the cultural practices represented in Chinua Achebeâs âThings Fall Apart.â Another time, I was singled out to answer what feminism means to black women.
The expectation that I would educate my white peers became a chore and signaled that I was the token black girl to many of my classmates. I wondered if my friends at predominantly black high schools held these responsibilities.
Then I was sitting in a hall recently when a white male teacher walked up to my circle of friends, all of whom are black. He asked if we knew the details of a Black Student Union event at our school. When we all replied we didnât know, he said: âWell, people have been asking me, and Iâm white â I donât know. I thought you guys would.â
It was that moment that got me thinking it was finally time for me to break from the predominantly white institutions I have gone to since kindergarten. Having to enter and exit different worlds on a daily basis has taught me how to relate to and empathize with others who are different from me. But Iâve rarely been afforded the opportunity to identify with people like myself.
I was admitted to five HBCUs. My heart told me to pick Howard University. When I visited, it was everything my godmother, a Howard alumna, said it would be. When I saw a classroom filled with black medical students, I felt inspired. Itâs my dream to become a psychologist, and seeing the Howard students so focused on their goals made me believe I can accomplish mine too.
But Clark Atlanta University gave me a full ride.
I chose Clark Atlanta. Graduating with no debt is going to be wonderful, and I can also take classes at nearby Morehouse and Spelman. For the first time, Iâll get to attend an institution that has a variety of courses and extracurricular activities tailored specifically for my educational advancement, as an African-American.
I will no longer have to feel like a visitor or a representative sent from elsewhere. I get to belong to a community.
[]
Amir Crowe
Joshua Bailey, 17, Youth Radio
Atlanta
H-O-W-A-R-D.
G-E-O-R-G-I-A T-E-C-H
Those are the letters I keep seeing in bold print across the chests of two students who attend my high school. Their sweatshirts embody the choice lots of students are making: a historically black college, or a state school?
In my case, to call it a choice is slightly misleading. Money is one of the biggest factors shaping my college decision. Iâm only rich in innovative ideas, potential and the drive to be successful.
When I realized that colleges donât offer full-ride scholarships through recruitment mail, I stopped opening the dozens of envelopes flooding my mailbox. I didnât want to let myself fall in love with a campus or start fantasizing about how the sweatshirt would look on my Instagram account, because there was no way I could afford it.
My high school is also a major influence. I go to a diverse and creative high school in the center of the melting pot of Atlanta. I want my college to reflect that same atmosphere.
My lack of interest in an HBCU is surprising to most. But not to my mom, even though she went to Tuskegee University. She understands that Iâm looking for a more diverse college experience than the one she had.
Studying the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education helped me to be even more confident in my opinion. I know HBCUs have become more diverse, and I respect and understand why they were created: to give African-Americans access to a college education when we had no other option. If I were around when they were established, I would have appreciated that, and I still do.
My choice has changed, because the world has changed.
When I called my father to tell him I didnât want to commit to an HBCU, he told me that he didnât want me to. My dad didnât attend college and he feels that he was deprived of many opportunities he deserved. He worries that I would also face discrimination, after graduating from a black college.
So in the end, Iâm heading to Georgia State University. When I arrive on campus, Iâll look around and see what needs to be done, and what I need to do for myself to further my journey in life. And if I feel like there are aspects of campus life that need to change â related to race or anything else â Iâll work to make that change happen.
Isnât that what college is all about?
[]
Pablo De La Hoya
Mali Dandridge, 17, Youth Radio
Oakland, Calif.
I was admitted to my top-choice college, Brown University.
On the day college decisions went live online, I squeezed my eyes shut and clicked on the link. When I opened my eyes, confetti exploded across the screen, and there was the word Iâd been hoping for: âCongratulations.â Blood rushed to my face, and I started crying tears of joy.
But I also immediately began to worry about how I would be perceived as a black girl in the Ivy League, and where I would find my community. The few black Ivy Leaguers I know have all said that at one time or another, they felt slighted because of their race.
I grew up hearing stories from my uncle, who went to Harvard in the 1980s. He remembers some of his fellow black classmates being disinclined to speak up, out of fear that theyâd be cast as the âdumb black person.â âThey let their blackness become their weakness,â is how he put it, and he advised me not to do the same. Their behaviors only reinforced the biased suspicions of many of their classmates and professors at the time: that they were only there because of affirmative action.
Seeking comfort, I talked to my mom, who attended Princeton in the â80s. I hoped that my uncleâs experience was an extreme case. But she said she felt pretty insecure on campus and gave me advice on how to âget throughâ it all â as if getting through college, not enjoying it, should be the objective. She said she had to have faith in her abilities when others wouldnât. I found it chilling that her achievement would create so many struggles.
I hoped that the illusion of a âdiverseâ and âacceptingâ generation in todayâs society would protect me from the outright prejudice that my family members endured. But based on microaggressions Iâve faced at school around my college acceptance and other achievements, I know that things havenât changed all that much.
One classmate suggested that I was only elected as a student leader for diversityâs sake, not because I had earned it. Another time, a boy in my class said that race âobviously helpedâ me get into Brown, without considering my good grades and extracurricular activities, or the role of race in his acceptance to competitive schools as a white male.
Brown is known as the âliberal, open-mindedâ Ivy, and that gives me hope that I can prove my intellect without others making snap judgments about me based on my race. My uncle said that Brown students are weird: âTheyâre the types to wear mismatching socks to make some sort of political statement.â I thought about my favorite pair of bright yellow socks, my history of bold outfits, and my love of social justice, and smiled.
It seems like being different is a badge of honor at Brown, not something to be ashamed of, which is why I think it will be a good school for me, as a black girl.
For more college stories from Youth Radio, please see â[Rethinking The Rejection Letter]( by Stella Lau; â[Why Iâm Worried About Going To College With My Twin]( by Sierra Fang-Horvath; and â[Degree Interrupted]( by Brooke Reotutar.
© 2018, [Youth Radio]( Oakland, Calif.
[Howard University Stares Down Challenges and Hard Questions](
By NOAH WEILAND
Students and faculty members grapple with campus turmoil and the universityâs public image as a barometer for black colleges nationwide.
[At Columbia, Revisiting the Revolutionary Students of 1968](
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
On the 50th anniversary of the 1968 student takeover, the neglected story of African-American protesters is moving into the spotlight.
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Join us at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesdays as we examine topics related to race and culture on The Timesâs[Facebook page](.
Whatâs it like to discover that your ancestors participated in one of the most heinous acts of racial violence in the United States? Thatâs what happened to Karen Branan, the author of â[The Family Tree]( when she learned that several of her ancestors had been involved in a lynching. Then she got an email from a descendant of one of the victims and came face to face with her familyâs legacy.
This week we were joined by Ms. Branan and Jackie Jordan Irvine, a professor emeritus of urban education at Emory University, who share this painful history. [[Watch]( or [Read](
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[For Thousands of âDreamers,â It Has Been a Wild Ride. Itâs Not Over Yet.](
By MIRIAM JORDAN AND SONA PATEL
The young undocumented immigrants have seen their hopes alternately elevated and dashed, sometimes in a single week.
[Students Walked Out to Protest Gang Violence. Even That Was Dangerous.](
By PATRICIA MAZZEI
In Miamiâs Liberty City neighborhood, where the debate over guns is old and fraught, protesting the shooting death of a student proved far more challenging than his classmates expected.
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By BLAIN ROBERTS AND ETHAN J. KYTLE
In 1918, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips published âAmerican Negro Slavery,â which framed slavery as a labor agreement between masters and happy slaves â facile thinking that persists today.
[Teenagerâs Prom Dress Stirs Furor in U.S. â but Not in China](
By AMY QIN
After a Utah high school student wore a Chinese-style cheongsam, Asian-Americansâ reactions were blistering. But that perplexed many on the other side of the world.
[A Reckoning for Apu, âThe Simpsonsâ and Brownface](
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De Burgos, a literary foremother of the Nuyorican movement, defied societal norms and advocated for the islandâs independence.
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