HMS Symposium Celebrates 30 Years of Affirmative Action

Students, faculty and members of the medical community gathered at Harvard Medical School (HMS) on October 2 to attend a Diversity and Development Symposium.

The symposium, which celebrates 30 years of affirmative action at HMS, highlighted both recent developments at the medical school and plans for the future.

Keynote speakers included Harvard University President Neil L. Rudenstine, HMS Dean Joseph B. Martin and M.D./Ph.D candidate Donnella Green.

All three speakers stressed the need for continued affirmative action, particularly in the recruitment of a more diverse faculty at HMS and its affiliated organizations.

"I believe we have not done as well as we might have with respect to recruiting talented people of color to our staff and management positions," Martin said. "We are looking to see how we can appear more promising to talented individuals from minority groups."

HMS's policy of affirmative action began in 1969 as a faculty resolution made in response to the civil rights protests of that year and the subsequent assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., said Dr. Leon Eisenberg, the Maude and Lillian Presley professor of social medicine, emeritus at HMS.

That year, 16 "disadvantaged" students were admitted to HMS, he said. By this June, more than 700 "underrepresented" students will have received a degree from HMS or from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, he added.

"[HMS's record of diversity is] enviable, marvelous, and strong," Rudenstine said. "[But] we're not there yet; not across the student level, certainly not at the faculty level and not at the staff level."

Eisenberg, who made the opening remarks, concurred. "The goal must be to recruit and promote minority faculty as successfully as we have identified and backed students."

Green, whose speech centered around her own experiences as the only black woman in the 30-year history of HMS's neurobiology department, said, "The hospitals are significantly less diverse than the medical school."

She said that she had often felt dis- scriminated against as the only woman orminority in various classes, and particularly inresidencies or wards.

"I have experienced firsthand the indignity ofracism and sexism at this school," she said."Discrimination in its present form is oftensubtle and covert--but [still] damaging. I know[HMS] has prepared me incredibly well for acareer. Yet, had I had the same opportunities, thesame experiences, as those around me, I know myexperience would have been even richer."

Martin is spearheading the current effort toincrease faculty and staff diversity at allHMS-affiliated organizations.

"The Executive Council on Diversity hasdeveloped a mission to pull together all thevarious constituencies," Martin said. "There isnow a uniform plan to monitor recruitment ofminorities in all Harvard residencies."

Recent developments include a review of thestatus of assistant and associate professors,"resulting in many well-deserved promotions ofwomen and minorities," Martin said; the creationof three Offices for Women at two area hospitalsand a medical center; and increased financialsupport to the already-existing HMS DiversityOffice.

Tied up in the discussion of the need forcontinued affirmative action was the RiggsAmendment, the proposed law that would prohibitaffirmative action at any school where even onestudent receives federal aid, such as a loan.

Rudenstine, who has a long history as a staunchsupporter of affirmative action and who wasinstrumental in defeating the proposed amendmentlast year, restated his commitment to keepingaffirmative action alive at Harvard and across thenation.

"There is a big change in the national mood,"he said, referring to recent developments inCalifornia, where minority enrollment plungedafter affirmative action was removed as anadmissions factor at public universities. "[But]thanks to a coalition, [the Riggs amendment] wasdecisively defeated. We're going to defeat itagain.... To think that we could not have leadersto represent the broad sweep of society, to thinkthat we could go on without that, is just making aterrible, terrible mistake. We've got to have morevictories."

Rudenstine also predicted that an eventualSupreme Court ruling on affirmative action wouldhinge not on the historical disadvantage ofminority groups, but on the value "diversity addsto learning in education."

"It must somehow support the central aim of theinstitution," he said.

As evidence of the "powerfully positiveresults" of affirmative action, Rudenstinediscussed a recently released book, The Shapeof the River, co-authored by presidentEmeritus Derek C. Bok, which included the firstextensive statistical analysis of the results ofaffirmative action.

Calling the book "profoundly important,"Rudenstine said that it indicates the strongsuccess of affirmative action, showing, forexample, that students who were recipients ofaffirmative action are more likely to work incivic services or for non-profit organizations.

"This is not a book we can afford to ignore,"Rudenstine said.

Following the landmark decisions in Californiaand Texas to ban affirmative action inuniversities, the number of students applying tomedical schools has declined sharply, Martin said.

"National trends in applications of minoritiesto medical school give cause for concern," hesaid. Martin said there had been an 11.1 percentdecline in minority applications nationwide from1996 to 1997.

However, he said the percentage of women andminorities actually enrolled in HMS's class of2002 has remained fairly constant over the pastseven years.

"This year's class of entering students [atHMS] is reasonably, although not ideally,representative of the diversity in the largercommunity and the nation," Martin said.

All the speakers expressed a belief thataffirmative action benefits all members of thecommunity.

Eisenberg, who gave a firsthand account abouthow America has changed over the last halfcentury, spoke about the difference between hisown college experience and college campuses today.

"Fifty years later, I can certify thatmulticultural diversity is much more stimulatingintellectually and satisfying emotionally," hesaid.

However, all agreed that the present-daysituation is still far from good enough.

"Affirmative action is not the cause of racialor gender inequality in America," Green said. "Itmerely reflects their enduring power."

"Given the speed and complexity of the futurewe face, we know that we need as much creativityas we can find," Martin said. "Diversity ofperspective is one root of that creativity. Thechallenges of science and society require nothingless than the full participation of us all.

"I have experienced firsthand the indignity ofracism and sexism at this school," she said."Discrimination in its present form is oftensubtle and covert--but [still] damaging. I know[HMS] has prepared me incredibly well for acareer. Yet, had I had the same opportunities, thesame experiences, as those around me, I know myexperience would have been even richer."

Martin is spearheading the current effort toincrease faculty and staff diversity at allHMS-affiliated organizations.

"The Executive Council on Diversity hasdeveloped a mission to pull together all thevarious constituencies," Martin said. "There isnow a uniform plan to monitor recruitment ofminorities in all Harvard residencies."

Recent developments include a review of thestatus of assistant and associate professors,"resulting in many well-deserved promotions ofwomen and minorities," Martin said; the creationof three Offices for Women at two area hospitalsand a medical center; and increased financialsupport to the already-existing HMS DiversityOffice.

Tied up in the discussion of the need forcontinued affirmative action was the RiggsAmendment, the proposed law that would prohibitaffirmative action at any school where even onestudent receives federal aid, such as a loan.

Rudenstine, who has a long history as a staunchsupporter of affirmative action and who wasinstrumental in defeating the proposed amendmentlast year, restated his commitment to keepingaffirmative action alive at Harvard and across thenation.

"There is a big change in the national mood,"he said, referring to recent developments inCalifornia, where minority enrollment plungedafter affirmative action was removed as anadmissions factor at public universities. "[But]thanks to a coalition, [the Riggs amendment] wasdecisively defeated. We're going to defeat itagain.... To think that we could not have leadersto represent the broad sweep of society, to thinkthat we could go on without that, is just making aterrible, terrible mistake. We've got to have morevictories."

Rudenstine also predicted that an eventualSupreme Court ruling on affirmative action wouldhinge not on the historical disadvantage ofminority groups, but on the value "diversity addsto learning in education."

"It must somehow support the central aim of theinstitution," he said.

As evidence of the "powerfully positiveresults" of affirmative action, Rudenstinediscussed a recently released book, The Shapeof the River, co-authored by presidentEmeritus Derek C. Bok, which included the firstextensive statistical analysis of the results ofaffirmative action.

Calling the book "profoundly important,"Rudenstine said that it indicates the strongsuccess of affirmative action, showing, forexample, that students who were recipients ofaffirmative action are more likely to work incivic services or for non-profit organizations.

"This is not a book we can afford to ignore,"Rudenstine said.

Following the landmark decisions in Californiaand Texas to ban affirmative action inuniversities, the number of students applying tomedical schools has declined sharply, Martin said.

"National trends in applications of minoritiesto medical school give cause for concern," hesaid. Martin said there had been an 11.1 percentdecline in minority applications nationwide from1996 to 1997.

However, he said the percentage of women andminorities actually enrolled in HMS's class of2002 has remained fairly constant over the pastseven years.

"This year's class of entering students [atHMS] is reasonably, although not ideally,representative of the diversity in the largercommunity and the nation," Martin said.

All the speakers expressed a belief thataffirmative action benefits all members of thecommunity.

Eisenberg, who gave a firsthand account abouthow America has changed over the last halfcentury, spoke about the difference between hisown college experience and college campuses today.

"Fifty years later, I can certify thatmulticultural diversity is much more stimulatingintellectually and satisfying emotionally," hesaid.

However, all agreed that the present-daysituation is still far from good enough.

"Affirmative action is not the cause of racialor gender inequality in America," Green said. "Itmerely reflects their enduring power."

"Given the speed and complexity of the futurewe face, we know that we need as much creativityas we can find," Martin said. "Diversity ofperspective is one root of that creativity. Thechallenges of science and society require nothingless than the full participation of us all.