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Harvard University has "let the wolf into racial prejudice by the door of entry," according to a lawyer of American students of Asian descent who challenged the use of race in admissions by the university.
The lawyer, Adam Mortara, presented the pleadings Monday morning in federal court in a high-stakes trial that drew a crowd of spectators.
Using the help of spreadsheets and documents, Mortara argued that Harvard awarded American applicants of US origin a higher score than whites for all factors, with the exception of personal. And yet, he said, there is only one Asian student on campus for two whites.
The case, introduced by Students for Fair Admissions, states that the Harvard admissions process discriminates against applicants of Asian-American origin and limits the number of admissions admitted each year. It is based on six years of admissions data at Harvard and is expected to reveal well-guarded secrets about how students access one of the most competitive colleges in the world.
Mortara was followed by Harvard Lawyer, Bill Lee, who, in his opening statement, argued that the plaintiffs had manipulated the university admission statistics to agree with their arguments. "If you torture the data long enough, you will have anything," said Lee, a member of the Harvard Corporation.
Lee said that, for the moment, "Harvard can not achieve its educational goals without regard to race".
And, he has repeated many times, Harvard has never considered the race of a candidate as a negation.
To discriminate, said Lee, admissions officials at Harvard should suffer so many machinations that it would be "absurd". And, he said, there is no e-mail or document suggesting such a scheme.
"This is not the time to go back," he said.
Although the case concerns Harvard, an institution that only enrolls 1,600 freshmen on a pool of more than 42,000 candidates each year, it is closely monitored because it could offer opponents of the positive discrimination the possibility of limiting race-based admissions in higher education. more generally. On Sunday, activists on both sides of the issue organized duel rallies – at Harvard Square and Copley Square – in preparation for the trial.
In court on Monday, Mortara, a former clerk of Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court, insisted that positive action as such would not be the object of court proceedings. a lawsuit and that Students for Fair Admissions supported campus diversity.
Deirdre Fernandes can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @fernandesglobe.
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