Harvard's lead counsel in a bias case recalls his subordinates with discrimination



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John Hughes, one of the former clerks of Justice Thomas, on Tuesday questioned the Dean of Admissions of Harvard on whether the consideration of race affected the "personal note" assigned to candidates. The grade is one of five grades used by admissions officers to assess candidates, as well as "academic", "extracurricular", "athletic" and "overall".

Mr. Fitzsimmons acknowledged that the personal ranking of Americans of Asian origin was lower than that of other races. But he added that many factors were included in this note, including information provided by guidance counselors and secondary school teachers.

"The strength of teachers 'and counselors' recommendations about whites is a little stronger than those of Americans of Asian descent," he said, adding that "this could be a factor" in lowering personal notes.

Mr. Hughes questioned Mr. Fitzsimmons about a report published in 1990 by a federal admissions survey at Harvard, which examined the issue of discrimination against candidates of Asian descent American and authorizing the university to commit wrongdoing. Investigators, said Mr. Hughes, had discovered cases of admissions officers commenting that Americans of Asian descent were bland, reflecting a common stereotype.

"We do not approve, we abhor stereotypical comments," Fitzsimmons said. "It's not part of our process. It's not who I am. These are not our members of the admissions committee. "

Mr. Fitzsimmons acknowledged that race is a factor of admission. But he added that the race of a candidate had weight only if it reflected the experience of life, as "the fact that they had overcome and overcome such obstacles".

In his keynote address in the hallway, Mr. Lee stated that the testimony presented up to now had only one aspect of the story, adding that the report of the federal inquiry had been written "From 1990, when people said that in the middle of 110,000 records, they had found some comments. "And finally, it was found that Harvard was not discriminatory," he said.

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