![]() ![]() Though we all went to the same school, and Harvard’s name likely opened doors for many of us, at the end of the day-or at the end of 30 years since graduation, in this case-what was so fascinating about meeting up with my own richly diverse class during reunion was that no matter our original background, no matter our current income or skin color or struggles or religion or health or career path or family structure, the common threads running through our lives had less to do with Harvard and more with the pressing issues of being human. Read: The curse of being a highly selective college It is to provide a rainbow of politics and upbringings and thought processes and understandings that might teach us, through our differences, how similar we are. ![]() ![]() I can hold both of these truths-diversity is good the roots of diversity in the admissions process were prejudiced against my own people-and not only still be able to function but also to see that sometimes good results can come from less-than-good intentions.īecause the point of diversity on a college campus, no matter its less-than-honorable roots, is not to count how many brown faces versus how many white and black faces a school has. And I’m also aware, as a Jew, that Harvard’s diversity initiative was first put into motion as a way to keep the university’s burgeoning Jewish population in check. ![]() Diep, Harvard class of ’19, whose application has been trotted out by the lawsuit for all to see. I believe in the benefits of diversity, even if it means choosing an immigrant kid with a lower-than-usual SAT score (for Harvard) but other stellar qualities, like Thang Q. It’s no wonder that in fascist regimes, the intellectuals are always the first to be silenced. Seeing the coin from either of its two sides has never been more important, particularly now, in this nuance-lacking era of divisiveness and nationalism. Intelligence, it has been said, is the ability to hold two opposing ideas at the same time and still function, and if universities could be said to have one overriding goal as institutions of higher learning, it is to teach its students this critical skill, Harvard no more than others. Moreover, I am appalled that all-male final clubs-fraternity-like eating clubs in which the sons of America’s privileged class have traditionally gathered-still exist on campus (albeit with sanctions) without commensurate opportunities, with rare exceptions, for women, minorities, and others, but I also call some of their alumni members my closest friends.įrom 1892: “The present requirements for admission to Harvard” I also don’t love the fact that the Harvard fight song is still “ Ten Thousand Men of Harvard,” in a school populated by at least as many women as men, and yet hearing its opening notes can still make me deeply nostalgic. But I understand why the development office, which allows the university to give a free ride to any student whose family makes less than $65,000 a year, might encourage such a practice, which is hardly unique to Harvard. I don’t love the fact-now made public through the trial but previously understood by all of us to be true-that the kids whose parents donate buildings are given preferential treatment over those whose parents don’t. I loved my four years at Harvard, largely because of the diversity of its student body. Harvard tries-and succeeds, to my mind-to fill its limited spots with a diversity not only of race and class but also of geography, politics, interests, intellectual fields of study, and worldviews. What he said-and I’m paraphrasing, because I didn’t record it-was that he could fill five whole incoming classes with valedictorians who’d received a perfect score on the SAT, but that’s not what Harvard is or will ever be. On the weekend before the opening gavel of what’s being dubbed the Harvard affirmative-action trial, a record-breaking 597 of my fellow members of the class of ’88 and I, along with alumni from other reunion classes, were seated in a large lecture hall, listening to the new president of Harvard, Lawrence Bacow, address the issue of diversity in the admissions process. This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. ![]()
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