Harvard Joins In The Defense

Somewhere in the vast decentralized entity called Harvard administration, there is an extremely sensitive mechanism which is triggered whenever the University's domain in any particular area is remotely threatened. It is this informal "nervous" system which sounds the warning and provides the adrenaline spurring Harvard to uncommon levels of involvement.

So with the first winds of the rising storm of DeFunis v. Odegaard rustling on the national scene in November, when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the reverse discrimination case, simultaneous alarms were sounded in Mass Hall and at the Law School.

The case involves a white graduate of the University of Washington, Marco DeFunis Jr., who was denied admission to the university's law school, despite grades and an LSAT score just below the level which would have won him automatic admission.

DeFunis filed suit in the Washington Superior Court when he later discovered that over one-fourth of the admitted students had academic records below his, and that all of them were minority students whose applications were considered separately from the general applicant pool.

DeFunis charged that the university's "arbitrary and capricious action" had deprived him of equal protection of the law, guaranteed by the 14th amendment.

After two years in the lower courts, the case will be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court on February 26. This week Harvard filed with the court a "friend of the court" brief written by Archibald Cox '34, Williston Professor of Law. The brief defends the right of admissions offices to make selections consciously designed to increase minority enrollment in their student bodies.

Harvard and at least 25 other institutions prepared opinions for the court because educators, college administrators and lawyers believe that the outcome of this case could have a significant impact on non-white minority, sexual, ethnic and socio-economic group admissions procedures and affirmative action programs for hiring.

If the court rules that institutions of higher learning cannot include race as a factor in any admissions decisions, Harvard and other schools will find their entire selection processes in jeopardy.