Word: quota
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...would like to commend Spencer Hsu for his February 11 editorial on Asian-American admissions. As Hsu astutely observes, it is unrealistic to attribute the disparity between white and Asian-American admissions rates to a deliberate, systematic quota system. Those who look for such a system are not only wasting their time but also draw attention away from the real, subtle problems of discrimination inherent in our universities and other aspects of our society. Such persons make the same faulty and dangerous assumptions as do Harvard University and persons like William Pao, who believe that the absence of specifically anti...
Moreover, the University statement which refutes the existence of a quota raises a much broader issue than that of racial discrimination. Preference to legacies and to athletes lie within the University's legal rights as a corporation, but conflict with the University's responsiblities as a world leader in education. The selfishness of persons who, like David Yu, defend the "legacy" policy (February 12) is appalling. "As a future alumnus," he defends the policy, but did he support it as an applicant four years ago? University favoritism to "legacies" perpetuates, even validates, an attitude like Yu's: one does...
...February 11, 1988) is an emotional outburst that is based upon ill-founded premises and which proposes an illogical solution. Hsu concludes that because admission rates for Asian-Americans are less than that of their white peers, Harvard is guilty of racial discrimination. Although he admits Harvard has no quota system, Hsu claims that Harvard's standard for admission places the "average" Asian-American applicant at a disadvantage, and thus, indirectly practices racial discrimination. Hsu demands that Harvard eliminate this difference in acceptance rates; if this means developing a new set of admission criterion that would favor the "average" Asian...
Certainly, Harvard discriminates. Every year, thousands of applicants are denied admission. However, the important question is whether Harvard's standards for admission unduly places Asian-Americans at a disadvantage. The admissions office has assured us that Harvard has no quota system and Hsu himself agrees to this fact. As for participating in extracurricular activities, there is no reason why Asian-American high school students are at a disadvantage to their peers...
...final tally, these biases do not add up to a quota. The percentage of Asian Americans per class has risen from 4.8 to 12.2 in the last decade--a testament to the effort of the present Admissions Committee to create a diverse student body. In the future, if the number of children of Asian-American alumni increases (which is now inevitable) without a parallel rise in acceptances, then Asian-Americans will have cause to worry. But for the present moment, there is no concrete evidence to assert the existence of a quota...