Racing for admission

Last week, this newspaper reported that Jian Li, a Yale freshman, filed a civil rights complaint against Princeton with the U.S. Department of Education. Li alleges that Princeton unlawfully discriminates against Asian applicants in its admission process. In his complaint, Li cites research by two Princeton professors showing that racial preferences for Blacks and Hispanics adversely affect the admission opportunities for Asians.

As the data illustrates, Li's factual claims are correct: The flip side of preferences for underrepresented minorities, legacies and athletes appears to be "disaffirmative" action for other groups, including Asians. But affirmative action policies play an important role both in our school and in our society which we would be foolish to ignore. It is for this reason that the University should continue its efforts to ensure a diverse student body.

Racial diversity should remain one of the many factors considered when forming a class. With so much competition for a limited number of spots, elite universities like Princeton have the ability to do more than select applicants merely on the basis of GPA and SAT scores — the narrow, quantitative information cited by Li in his complaint. While students who excel in subjects ranging from physics to classics contribute greatly to the student body, so do those applicants who provide the University with the blend of experiences, knowledge, skills and abilities it needs to create the best possible learning community.

While we all aspire to some mythical "colorblind" society, our society continues to treat people differently based on their race and ethnicity. Race, an attribute portrayed as trivial by those who oppose its consideration in the admission process, remains one of the core determinants that frame how we experience and interpret the world around us. The University is correct to recognize that an admission system based on a colorblind meritocracy would neither take into account the differential treatment received by applicants up to that point in their lives, nor necessarily reward the most meritorious.

It is tempting to throw out race-based affirmative action policies in favor of admission policies which take into account hardship instead. But such policies have proven to be a disaster in the places they have been implemented. Since California banned its state universities from considering race as a factor in admissions, the number of African-Americans enrolling in UCLA law school has dropped by over 80 percent. Other California schools also experienced drastic declines.

The University is correct to weigh a variety of factors — including race — in selecting its incoming classes. While crude quotas which assign minority status a certain number of "points" might be unwise, a holistic evaluation of candidates that takes into consideration each individual's potential contribution to the University community should remain the foundation of the admissions process.