A confidential report complied by the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, a group of 32 private colleges and universities, reveled last spring that the average SAT scores of Black students were lower compared to those of white students. The report stated that the average score for Black students in Harvard's Class of 1995 is 1290, while the average score of whites is 1400.

Fitzsimmons refuses to confirm or refute the consortium's statistics, but said last year that Harvard does belong to the consortium and participates in its studies. He also says that the scores of any particular subgroups show that "all minority groups are well within the normal range for the institution as a whole."

Mark Stonecypher, a white male student rejected by Harvard last year, filed a complaint last year with the Department of Education charging Harvard with reverse discrimination. Though the complaint was dismissed last year, the Stonecypher charges embody the ongoing debate in implementing affirmative action: is the "College sacrificing academic quality for diversity?

Stonecypher's complaint addressed "all Black minority students that applied to Harvard receiving special treatment." He singled out his high school classmate Eugenia Kay Harris, a Black female, who was accepted to Harvard. Stonecypher, a sophomore at Vanderbilt, was rejected by Harvard in the spring of 1993.

The complaint claimed that Harris had lower standardized test scores and took a less rigorous course load than Stonecypher. It also alleged that Harris failed to meet the application deadline.

Harris, the class valedictorian, denied that she took less demanding classes. Many teachers at the Birmingham, Alabama high school Harris and Stonecypher attended, said earlier this year that Harris was a "class leader" and was more outgoing and more involved in extracurricular activities than Stonecypher.

He charged that on the basis of academic merit, he should have been accepted to Harvard's Class of 1997.

But according to the Department of Education's Office of Civil Right's (OCR) report, obtained by The Crimson under the Freedom of Information Act, Harvard does not favor certain applicants based on their racial or ethnic background.

"OCR determined that the admissions policies and procedures do treat applicants differently on the basis of race, but that the University proffered its interest in diversity among its students as a legitimate nondiscriminatory justification for the different treatment," the report states.

"The University considers the applications of hundreds and sometimes more than 1,000 applicants who apply after the application deadline," according to a memo by OCR Branch Chief Ralph D'Amico.

D'Amico quoted Associate Director of Admissions Rosemary M. Green as saying the deadline is flexible because "18-year-olds are under enough pressure to meet deadlines as it is."

Fitzsimmons says he feels vindicated by the Department's findings.

"Our feeling is that we dealt with Mr. Stonecypher in the same straight-forward way we dealt with any applicant," Fitzsimmons says.