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Students for Fair Admissions insisted on Thursday that its lawsuit against Harvard University and the national media attention it has drawn prompted the college’s admissions officers to more explicitly instruct staff when to consider applicants’ race and how to evaluate their personal traits to avoid bias.
Adam Mortara, an attorney for the organization, which has accused Harvard of discriminating against Asian-American applicants, noted that Harvard first started considering these changes in late July and early August, as news media reports focused on how the Ivy League school whittles 40,000 applicants to a freshmen class of about 1,600 students.
A reasonable person could assume these changes were “designed to make sure that your admissions officers did not fall prey to implicit bias or racial stereotyping against Asian-Americans?” Mortara asked Marlyn McGrath, Harvard’s director of admissions.
“It is the kind of thing that we’re always trying to remind the staff,” McGrath said.
Harvard tweaks its instructions to admissions officers routinely, McGrath said. This year’s changes were “moderate” and consistent with Harvard’s longtime policy on the use of race and the evaluation of personal traits, she said.
Yet it marks the first time in decades that Harvard has provided such specific written guidelines on the use of race to those who read the applications, McGrath said.
Harvard issued the new manuals in early October, just over a week before the trial began as it prepared its staff for the upcoming admissions cycle.
The Students for Fair Admissions suit has drawn national attention and could ultimately challenge the use of race in college admissions.
During the past three weeks in federal district court in Boston, Harvard’s traditionally opaque admissions process has come under intense scrutiny.
The trial in recent days has focused on whether the admissions process is marred by implicit bias and whether that affects the outcome of who gets in and who is rejected.
Students for Fair Admissions has alleged that Harvard’s use of personal characteristics disadvantages Asian-American applicants, who may be seen as quiet, introverted, and focused on math and science.
The personal ratings, which are gleaned from student essays, teacher and guidance counselor recommendations, and alumni and staff interviews, are particularly important in Harvard’s admissions process since many applicants have stellar academic records and participate in multiple extracurricular activities.
But according to an analysis by Students for Fair Admissions, only 22 percent of Asian-American applicants in the top one-tenth of the academic ladder received high personal ratings, compared to about 30 percent of white applicants.
Harvard officials have denied any discrimination and have suggested that one reason for the lower personal scores may be that teachers and guidance counselors are providing Asian-American applicants with less enthusiastic recommendations than white students.
It is unclear why high school recommendations for Asian-American students are less robust.
But David Card, a University of California Berkeley professor who analyzed six years’ worth of admissions data, said there is no evidence to suggest racial bias in Harvard’s selection process.
Still, Card couldn’t rule it out and said it would be impossible to conduct a statistical analysis that offered certainty that no bias existed.
On Thursday, Drew Faust, Harvard’s former president, defended diversity on the university’s campus. Faust was the president for 11 years before stepping down at the end of June.
Faust noted that Harvard’s student body is equally split between whites (2,709 students) and nonwhites (2,708 students) and that 17 percent of entering freshmen are the first in their family to go to college.
In the past decade, Harvard’s tenured Asian-American faculty has increased by 50 percent, and for 20 percent of students, their parents don’t have to make a financial contribution because they are considered low-income.
Diversity in all forms “has been a guiding force in the identity of Harvard,” Faust said. “We wouldn’t discriminate.”
Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled for Friday.
Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @fernandesglobe.
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