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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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Princeton, N.J. 08544-5264

Contact: Justin Harmon (609) 258-5732
Date: September 25, 1998
 

Bowen to Speak on Affirmative Action in College Admissions

PRINCETON, N.J. -- William G. Bowen, president emeritus of Princeton University and co-author of a comprehensive new study on the impact of affirmative action policies on minority students during and after college, will speak at Princeton on Wednesday, October 7, at 4:30 p.m. in McCosh 10. Bowen, who is currently president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will speak on "Choosing on the Merits: The Relevance of Race."

Bowen's book, The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions (Princeton University Press), was written with Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University and now a professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. It is based on a study of 45,000 students who entered 28 selective colleges in the fall of 1976 or the fall of 1989.

In recent years, the efforts of selective institutions to increase the number of black, Hispanic and Native American students have come under heavy fire. In 1996, the Regents of the University of California announced that the nine universities of the state system would no longer be permitted to take race into account in admitting students, a policy that was subsequently affirmed by California's voters. In the wake of the U.S. District Court ruling in Hopwood v. State of Texas (which also precluded taking race into account in the admission process), the Texas legislature has declared that all students in the top 10 percent of their high school class are eligible for admission to all of the state universities. Lawsuits have been filed in several other states challenging race-sensitive admissions policies.

Bowen and Bok write: "All signs suggest that the controversy is moving toward some new authoritative review and resolution. Clearly, the time is now ripe for a careful accounting of how race-sensitive admissions policies have been applied during their 30-year history, and what their consequences have been."

Employing comprehensive data compiled by the Mellon Foundation, the authors conclude that race-sensitive admission policies have worked well in accomplishing the objectives they were instituted to achieve: educating increasing numbers of minority graduates who would enter the professions and assume positions of civic and community leadership within a population that will soon be one-third black and Hispanic; and creating a racially diverse educational environment to help all their students learn to live and work successfully in an increasingly multi-racial society. Among their findings:

  • If race were given no consideration whatsoever in admitting students, the percentage of blacks in the student bodies of selective institutions would drop substantially.
  • Blacks entering selective institutions have high (and increasing) rates of completion, though not as high as their white classmates. Financial and personal factors -- and not academics -- appear to account for the vast majority of student withdrawals, however.
  • Large numbers of black students from selective institutions have gone on to earn advanced degrees, especially in the sought-after fields of law, business and medicine.
  • These black graduates have subsequently done extremely well in the marketplace, as judged by their occupations and earnings.

These latter two findings, which relate the post-secondary success of black graduates from selective colleges to that of black graduates nationwide, led the authors to conclude that "it is time to abandon the idea that well-intentioned college and university admissions officers have somehow sacrificed the interests of black students whom they have admitted."

In addition:

  • Black men and women who attended selective colleges are more active than their white classmates in civic activities, including community and social service endeavors, and political activities.
  • Blacks attending selective institutions have a high appreciation of their undergraduate experience and are more inclined than whites to feel that they benefited from college in important respects.
  • Blacks and whites attending selective institutions report a great deal of social interaction between the races during college.
  • There is a strong and growing belief in the value of enrolling a diverse student body among matriculants of all races at selective institutions.

 

The October 7 talk at Princeton is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College.