Standing Behind Affirmative Action

Over the last two and a half decades, Harvard's department of government has made an enormous effort to diversify its graduate enrollment and to redress past discrimination through a policy of affirmative action towards minorities. Yet lately this policy has come under increasing fire, most recently from an article in The Weekly Standard, a new conservative journal. The article, while pointing out serious problems in the department of government's financial aid program, is wrong in its charges against the department's affirmative action policies.

In particular, the article condemns the government department's policy of reevaluating minority applicants eliminated in the first round of the admissions process to ensure that any who can, in the words of Professor of Government and former head of the admissions committee Gary King, "make it through the program" are admitted. The Weekly Standard charges that such a policy uses race as the sole determining factor in admission decisions, a violation of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the 1978 Bakke v. University of California Board of Regents case.

Yet does this admissions policy really violate U.S. law? According to Harvard University's General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall, the Supreme Court never clearly defined what policies do constitute a violation of the Bakke ruling, leaving the decision largely open to interpretation. In so doing, the Supreme Court has granted universities wide latitude to determine what admissions policies are necessary to ensure diversity.

We believe the government department's current admissions policies are necessary to ensure diversity while maintaining the quality of the admittees. Without the current policy, many talented under-represented minorities would head to institutions that do more to recruit them, leaving Harvard with a qualified but largely homogeneous student body. Such a homogeneous student body would lack the intellectual diversity needed by any top graduate program.

Different minority groups tend to bring different perspectives and opinions on politics and government to the government department. Such a heterogeneity of opinion helps to stimulate discussion and debate, a must for any graduate program in government. In effect, without the affirmative action policies so heavily criticized by The Weekly Standard, the government department could never have obtained the intellectually diverse student body that helps make it an outstanding graduate department.

Despite The Weekly Standard's failure to recognize the need for the department's current admissions policy, the magazine does point out a number of significant flaws in the department's financial aid program. Currently, the government department provides full financial aid to all under-represented minorities regardless of need. In fact, these aid packages are so generous that even wealthy minority admittees receive more aid than the poorest whites or Asians.

Such a policy thoroughly violates the standards of fairness and equity. Educational institutions should award financial aid solely on the basis of need. The government department should follow the example set by Harvard College and treat all admittees equally. Otherwise, the school will end up redistributing wealth towards rich minorities.

Under the government department's current policy, middle-class whites and Asians indirectly subsidize the education of affluent minorities. Their tuition helps pay for the department's many expenses, thereby allowing the department to award generous financial aid packages to under-represented minorities. In effect, the department, like some modern day Sheriff of Nottingham, steals from the poor to give to the rich. We urge the government department to correct this inequitable policy by rewarding financial aid for all admittees solely on the basis of need.

However, the department should continue to give preference to under-represented minorities. Affirmative action remains a necessary and justified policy that ensures intellectual diversity in the department.