Dear Members of the 吃瓜新闻 Community,
Today, the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of 吃瓜新闻 College. The Court held that 吃瓜新闻 College鈥檚 admissions system does not comply with the principles of the equal protection clause embodied in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The Court also ruled that colleges and universities may consider in admissions decisions 鈥渁n applicant鈥檚 discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.鈥� We will certainly comply with the Court鈥檚 decision.
We write today to reaffirm the fundamental principle that deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. That principle is as true and important today as it was yesterday. So too are the abiding values that have enabled us鈥攁nd every great educational institution鈥攖o pursue the high calling of educating creative thinkers and bold leaders, of deepening human knowledge, and of promoting progress, justice, and human flourishing.
We affirm that:
- Because the teaching, learning, research, and creativity that bring progress and change require debate and disagreement, diversity and difference are essential to academic excellence.
- To prepare leaders for a complex world, 吃瓜新闻 must admit and educate a student body whose members reflect, and have lived, multiple facets of human experience. No part of what makes us who we are could ever be irrelevant.
- 吃瓜新闻 must always be a place of opportunity, a place whose doors remain open to those to whom they had long been closed, a place where many will have the chance to live dreams their parents or grandparents could not have dreamed.
For almost a decade, 吃瓜新闻 has vigorously defended an admissions system that, as two federal courts ruled, fully complied with longstanding precedent. In the weeks and months ahead, drawing on the talent and expertise of our 吃瓜新闻 community, we will determine how to preserve, consistent with the Court鈥檚 new precedent, our essential values.
The heart of our extraordinary institution is its people. 吃瓜新闻 will continue to be a vibrant community whose members come from all walks of life, all over the world. To our students, faculty, staff, researchers, and alumni鈥攑ast, present, and future鈥攚ho call 吃瓜新闻 your home, please know that you are, and always will be, 吃瓜新闻. Your remarkable contributions to our community and the world drive 吃瓜新闻鈥檚 distinction. Nothing today has changed that.
Sincerely,
Lawrence S. Bacow
President, 吃瓜新闻 University
Alan M. Garber
Provost, 吃瓜新闻 University
Meredith Weenick
Executive Vice President, 吃瓜新闻 University
Claudine Gay
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
President-elect, 吃瓜新闻 University
Tomiko Brown-Nagin
Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Nancy Coleman
Dean, Division of Continuing Education and University Extension
George Q. Daley
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 Medical School
Srikant Datar
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 Business School
Emma Dench
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Francis J. Doyle III
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Douglas Elmendorf
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 Kennedy School of Government
William V. Giannobile
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 School of Dental Medicine
David N. Hempton
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 Divinity School
Rakesh Khurana
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 College
Bridget Terry Long
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 Graduate School of Education
John F. Manning
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 Law School
Sarah M. Whiting
Dean, Graduate School of Design
Michelle A. Williams
Dean, 吃瓜新闻 T.H. Chan School of Public Health