Rudenstine Honored for Diversity Efforts at Gala Event

More than 400 luminaries enjoyed jazz and wine, entertainment and enlightenment last night at a Fogg Art Museum event organized by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund honoring President Neil L. Rudenstine.

The fund named Rudenstine the "Legal Defense Fund 1997 Honoree" for his efforts defending diversity as a criterion in hiring and admissions in higher education.

Guests paid $250 a plate to attend the event, a fundraiser which included a buffet dinner of marinated flank steak, spice-rubbed grilled chicken breast, smoked trout and mesolum greens.

Though most of the evening was spent wining and dining, Rudenstine gave keynote address touching on the challenges affirmative action now faces in the courts and states. He discussed diversity's importance to his own education and encouraged those embattled in current fights to preserve affirmative action policies.

"Imagine this University if there could not be an African Sculpture Exhibit, if the Brothers Singers could not sing, imagine the poverty," Rudenstine said in his remarks.

The usually restrained Rudenstine sharpened his rhetoric on this occasion.

"I sort of feel the nation is asleep [on this issue]," he said. "The consequences will be deep, profound, terrible and long-lasting."

His speech was introduced by a performance of "N'kosi Sikeleli Africa" by a five-member vocal group called Brothers Singers and short introductions from fund leaders. Guests also toured an African Sculpture Exhibit on the second floor of the Fogg.

Guests gave Rudenstine a standing ovation after his remarks and said they found them impassioned and courageous.

"Thoughtful and needed," said A. Leon Higginbotham, public service professor of jurisprudence in the John F. Kennedy School of Government. "If Neil Rudenstine is listened to, America can be saved."

Always unassuming, Rudenstine said he was humbled by the award.

"I feel honored," he said in an interview beforehand. "I think what's most wonderful is the fact that this should happen at Harvard. It says more about Harvard than it does about me."

In his remarks, Rudenstine questioned those who challenge affirmative action on the grounds that it has corrected the wrongs it was designed to eliminate.

"[I would ask] the nation to look first at its conscience and then to it's future," he said.

Rudenstine's efforts on this issue achieved national prominence when he authored his 1995 President's Report on the history of diversity in higher education, a document which explored the thoughts of such disparate authors as John Stuart Mill and Henry Adams, Class of 1858, to explain the profound importance of a diverse environment on the development of the mind.

Subsequently, he spoke out in opposition to the court ruling in Hopwood vs. the University of Texas, a case that originally challenged the quota system employed by the University of Texas law school and ended in a ban on all affirmative action in three states. He also organized a statement on diversity signed by members of the Association of American Universities and published in The New York Times last April.

Leaders of the fund praised this work and said they hoped it would inspire other university presidents.

"He's being honored because he's been so honest, sensible and forthright on the issue of affirmative action, it's as simple as that," said Willie J. Washington, chair of the New England Committee of the fund.

In his remarks, Rudenstine touched on his personal history with diversity and education. He argued that the affects of affirmative action are slow, so these policies must be preserved.

He said both sides of his family were emigrants just a half century ago, and to date, only half have attended college. "No one has excluded them. It just took that long to happen," he said.

Other Harvard dignitaries at the event included: Cornel R. West '74, professor of Afro-American studies; Deval L. Patrick '78, who served in the Justice Department during President Clinton's first term; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, professor of Afro-American studies; and Angelica Z. Rudenstine, the President's wife.

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund uses America's legal system to correct injustices and brings lawsuits on issues of civil rights and racial discrimination.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III said the event reminded him of another he attended in 1958 when he first came to Harvard. That year, then-president Nathan M. Pusey '28 was honored for his support of the National Negro College Fund.

"I'm pleased that the presidents of Harvard are a part of this important issue," Epps said. "I'm here to be part of congratulating [Rudenstine] on these efforts."