Columbia, 13 Universities File Supreme Court Amicus Brief Supporting Consideration of Race in Admissions

The Supreme Court’s core holding in Grutter v. Bollinger was that diversity is a compelling educational interest. Citing Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s statement for the Grutter majority that the educational benefits of diversity “are not theoretical but real,” the universities’ amicus brief in Fisher explains that “[d]iversity encourages students to question their assumptions, to understand that wisdom and contributions to society may be found where not expected, and to gain an appreciation of the complexity of the modern world.”

“A move away from the court’s recognition in Grutter of the ‘substantial’ and ‘laudable’ benefits of a diverse student body would be as damaging to higher education as it would be ill-timed for the nation at large,” said Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger , who, as president of the University of Michigan defended that institution’s admissions policies in Grutter v. Bollinger. “The distance we have travelled in building a more integrated society out of a national past stained by slavery, Jim Crow laws and enduring discrimination is one of modern America’s greatest achievements, recognized with admiration by countries around the world confronting their own histories of racial and ethnic discord. The nation’s postsecondary academic institutions have been at the very heart of this transformation. As the amicus brief argues, producing the next generation of citizens and leaders is a core mission of our institutions, and the pedagogic concept of diversity is essential to preparing students for a nation and world that are becoming more complex. Creating this path to leadership is a goal embraced by the Supreme Court less than a decade ago in Grutter v. Bollinger.”

The amicus brief filed by the United States in support of the University of Texas underscores this very point: “The Nation’s interests in a range of areas—including military readiness, national security, public health, federal law enforcement, global competitiveness and education—will be more readily achieved if the pathways to professional success are visibly open to all segments of American society.”

Columbia has long been committed to the view that when universities possess the freedom to assemble student bodies featuring multiple types of diversity and have the resources to support “need blind” admissions with full financial aid, the result is a highly sought-after learning environment that attracts the best students. Columbia’s undergraduate student body has the highest percentage of low- and moderate-income students and the largest number of military veterans of our peer institutions, as well as the highest percentage of African American students among the nation’s top 30 universities.

The petitioner in the case, Abigail Fisher, has claimed that she would have been admitted if the University of Texas had refrained from considering race in its admissions decisions and that her constitutional rights were harmed as a result.

Columbia was joined on the brief by Brown, the University of Chicago, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Yale.

Yao Lu, assistant professor of Sociology, and Neeraj Kaushal, associate professor of Social Work, have been named Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholars. Based at the Foundation’s New York City headquarters for the 2012-2013 academic year, Lu and Kaushal will spend the year collaborating on immigration research.

Leopoldo Cabassa, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, has been elected to the American Society of Hispanic Psychiatry’s Board of Directors. ASHP fosters multidisciplinary collaborations in mental health treatment with a focus on Latino populations.

Caroline Walker Bynum, University Professor Emerita, has been elected to the Orden Pour le Mérite of the Federal Republic of Germany. Founded in 1740, the civil class of the Orden Pour le Mérite was created to recognize excellence in science, scholarship, and the arts.