For Immediate Release: June 26, 2003
Contact: Tom Krattenmaker
610-328-8534
tkratte1@swarthmore.edu
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/
Swarthmore College will continue to consider race among other important factors in its admissions following the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School.
"We are delighted with the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action. It is a victory for fine education and for using that education as a means to create a more just and successful society," Swarthmore President Alfred H. Bloom said. "It is also gratifying that broad constituencies of American society including corporate America and the military joined colleges and universities in supporting the position that diversity in education is a compelling national interest.
"The Court has given its endorsement to the holistic process including consideration of race and other dimensions of diversity through which Swarthmore admits and will continue to admit extraordinary students," Bloom said.
In February, Swarthmore joined 27 other highly selective liberal arts colleges in a "friend of the court" brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of affirmative action in college admissions. The brief asked the court to preserve the freedom of colleges and universities to consider race as one of many factors when admitting students in order to achieve diversity and select the most promising students.
At the time of the brief's filing, Bloom said: "We believe that diversity is essential to our educational mission - essential because we are committed to developing leaders from across the range of American society and essential because we are committed to offering all students the richly diverse educational environment required to build leadership skills for our diverse society and world."
In the summary of the argument of the amici curiae brief, the colleges urged the Supreme Court to "consider the experience of admissions before diversity was highly valued and before race-conscious approaches were employed, and the progress toward more equal opportunity since that revolution. It should consider the realities of admitting applicants, to serve a highly selective college's mission, in a society in which race still matters in determining a person's available opportunities and life experience, and the effects of discrimination and entrenched discrimination still linger."
The full text of the amicus brief is available at the University of Michigan web site at: http://www.umich.edu/~urel/admissions/legal/gra_amicus-ussc/um/Amherst-both.pdf
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