Word: mansfield
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...because it unfairly rigs the admissions process and therefore produces unjust outcomes. And, because Harvard and the government department employ a procedure that is wrong, they are wrong as well. Standing alone on the Right side of this issue (publicly at least) is Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. In addition to a selective interpretation of an article co-written by Professor of Government Gary King, much of the rhetorical force of the article is provided by an interview with Mansfield. (Indeed, the term "Race-norming" is a direct quote.) Inasmuch as The Weekly Standard and Mansfield seized...
Professor Mansfield's charges of race-norming are simply the most recent expression of a distinguished record of unprincipled vitriol against efforts to increase diversity at Harvard. The claim that African-American applicants compete solely against other African Americans is clearly at odds with what is stated in Professor King's description of the admissions process. King's description of this process is contained in his original article, upon whose selective interpretation the Standard article is based. According to him, affirmative action policies are not employed until after primary cuts have been made. After the primary cut, minority applicants...
...membership within an underrepresented minority group is simply one qualitative attribute among others that may be considered a positive feature of a candidate's total application. Indeed, in King's view, the admissions process is designed precisely to preclude arbitrary numerical cutoffs that may obscure other important qualifications. Professor Mansfield's charges of race norming, then, are as spurious as they are inflammatory...
...free ride" is equally ad hominem and groundless in fact. Many minority students arrive at Harvard having already secured outside funding. Having successfully competed for and won national competitions, these students, like other fellowship winners, are a financial boon to their departments as well as to the University. Had Mansfield bothered to inquire which minority students received Harvard funding and which students had outside sources, he would have been forced to acknowledge the groundlessness of this generalization. Based on hasty generalizations and factual inaccuracies, Mansfield's claims are neither interested in an inquiry into the facts nor designed to promote...
Constructive discussion presupposes a measure of equality among persons that, regrettably, sits uncomfortably (if at all) with Professor Mansfield's public statements. A fearless and robust discussion of affirmative action would feature vigorous disagreements and sustained criticism. Given the variety of perspectives and breadth of political commitments within the Harvard community, this would be welcome indeed. But when disagreements assume the form of ad hominem arguments by tenured faculty toward graduate students' qualifications, the discussion is no longer principled disagreement but, rather, personal attack. Without evidence or credible justification, such accusations amount to little more than ideologically-charged assaults upon...