When Jimmy Quach '97 went home last month, he returned to his alma mater, San Francisco's Lowell High, a public magnet school known for its racial quota system.

Under a court order, Lowell limits Asian-American student representation to 40 percent of the school. As a result, Quach says, an atmosphere of anger, resentment and racial tension surrounds Lowell's admissions process.

Quach's mission was to convince minorities to apply to Harvard and thus diversify the pool of high school seniors that sends applications to Byerly Hall.

As one of 10 undergraduates and two Asian-American recruiters who work for the Admissions Office's minority recruitment program, Quach helps sing Harvard's praises to prospective applicants.

The point of the program "is to bring in those that aren't represented well, and that's my personal motivation for doing recruiting," Quach says. "For me, it's a chance to be home and to talk to high school students about my Harvard experience."

One goal of the program is to increase the diversity of the Asian-Americans who apply to Harvard.

But in the wake of recent efforts across the country to scale back affirmative action programs, Asian-Americans have found themselves caught in the middle of a national debate over such programs.

While some argue that Asian-Americans have a responsibility to defend affirmative action, others say Asians are bearing more than their share of the burden.

Minority Recruiting

The minority recruiting program aims to bring in Asian-Americans who are underrepresented at Harvard, in both socioeconomic and ethnic background.

Quach and others in the program spend one week in October visiting public and private high schools with large populations of minority students.

The groups that are least represented include urban, less advantaged East Asian-Americans, and students of South- and Southeast Asian descent.

Mina K. Park '98, a program coordinator, says the program targets Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese students who are less likely to apply.

"They're worried because of the stereotype of Harvard," Park says. "They're worried whether or not they'll fit in, whether they'll be marginalized when they get here."

According to Margot Hsu Carroll, a senior admissions officer who oversees Asian-American admissions, the program helps Byerly Hall target those who are underrepresented throughout the admissions process.

"People think everyone [in the Asian-American community] wants to go to Harvard, but there are students who believe they would never get into a place like this," says Carroll, who is one of two "fourth readers" of Asian-American applications.

Although most applications for admission are read by three admissions officers, applications submitted by students of certain minorities--African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans and Puerto Ricans--are read a fourth time.

"We want to make sure that everything is considered fairly," Carroll says. "Sometimes things could be biased against Asian-Americans and we try to make sure things are fair."

For example, Carroll says, she may have a better understanding of the experiences students list on their applications, such as attending Chinese school.

"I went and I kind of know what that means," Carroll says. "[I know] the pressures their parents put on them."

Despite the emphasis on minority recruiting, Carroll says all students are given equal treatment in the admissions process.

"We treat Asian-Americans just as we treat all the other ethnic groups," she says. "[The process] is fair to every individual who applies. We don't pit people against each other and we don't have any quotas."

In 1990, the U.S. Department of Education completed a two-year review of Harvard's admissions process and found no evidence that Harvard had a quota limiting the number of Asian-American students accepted.

Harvard Admissions

Despite the findings of the Department of Education, some Asian-American students say their ethnicity is still a disadvantage in the admissions process.

"The consensus seems to be that being Asian in applying to Ivy League schools does not help," says Yvonne M. Kao '00.

Michael M. Luo '98, who is a Crimson editor, says high school students accept the fact that their likelihood of admission to Harvard may be smaller because of their ethnicity, but that they do not tend to have an "angry attitude" about the situation.

Quach says students in his high school recruiting sessions often asked him whether it is tougher for Asian-Americans to get in to Harvard.

The numbers do lend credence to the speculation, showing a leveling off in Asian-American matriculation during the past five years.

Although Asian-American representation grew from 5.5 percent of the Class of 1983 to 19.6 percent of the Class of 1994, Asian-Americans make up only 16.8 percent of the Class of 1997, 18 percent of the Class of 1999 and about 16 percent of the Class of 2000.

The federal review attributed the relatively lower percentage of Asian-Americans admitted to preferences given to athletes and legacies.

Carroll says today's fluctuating percentages can be explained by the admissions committee's practice of looking at each candidate individually.

She attributes the impression that the committee seeks to limit the number of Asian-Americans at Harvard to cultural differences rather than to actual statistical trends.

"In a lot of Asian countries they have a very different educational system, based on cut-offs," she says. "If the parents are immigrants, it's a tough thing to learn, that things are not just based on test scores."

"In all its history, Harvard has never claimed to be a meritocracy," she adds. "Harvard always looks for students with diverse backgrounds and talents from all around the country and the world."

James S. Hoyte '65, assistant to the president and associate vice-president, is the University officer responsible for affirmative action. He says he is satisfied with the methods the admissions office uses to secure a diverse student body.

"With respect to any group there's no specific overall target that we have, so it comes out the way it comes out," Hoyte says. "I feel pretty good about the mix of Asian-Americans in the whole variety of different students we see within that community."

Harvard has made great progress since he was an undergraduate in the '60s, Hoyte says. Then, the University began to actively seek a diverse student body.

"Certainly this is an incredibly different place," Hoyte says. "I'm an African-American, and there were quite a small number of us, and to my sense visually, there were very, very few Asian-Americans. So we can see tremendous progress."

Despite this progress, Hoyte says, there has been no retrenchment in the University's efforts to attract and welcome Asian-American students.

"There is no question that we have been more successful in seeing that Asian-Americans participate than with some other groups," he says. "But that doesn't mean there's a feeling that we don't need to have our eye on the ball."

Affirmative Action

Asian-Americans have been caught in the middle of a new national battle over scaling back affirmative action programs.

Earlier this month, 54 percent of California voters approved Proposition 209, which prohibits state and local governments from using racial or gender preferences in hiring, promotion and college admissions.

According to exit polls, support for affirmative action in California is significantly weaker among Asians than among other minority groups. Thirty-nine percent of Asians who went to the polls on Nov. 5 voted in favor of Prop. 209, compared with 26 percent of black voters and 24 percent of Latino voters.

"There's definitely a division in the Asian-American community," says Quach, who opposed Prop. 209. "In San Francisco, in a good amount of the Asian-American community, people do believe that a merit-based system is more worthwhile. The 40 percent who voted for Proposition 209 want to see things decided on merit."

Three thousand miles away, Asian-American students at Harvard say they are upset but unsurprised by the numbers.

"The Harvard community is just as split as the community at large," says Laura S. Kang '99, education and political co-chair of the Asian American Association (AAA).

Irene C. Cheng '97, former president of AAA, says she is disappointed by the support for ending affirmative action among Asians.

"A lot of Asian-Americans don't realize that affirmative action in a lot of ways has benefited Asian-Americans and women," Cheng says. "A lot of Asians buy into the status of being nearly white when in reality there is discrimination against Asian-Americans."

According to Vikaas S. Sohal '97, former president of the South Asian Association, affirmative action has helped Asian-Americans, if only indirectly.

"Progress on the civil rights front created a climate where it was possible to increase immigration," he says, calling current Asian-American opposition to affirmative action "fear without acknowledgement of past help."

But other students say they oppose affirmative action programs.

"I don't believe any sort of boost should be necessary," Kao says. "Affirmative action is inherently racist [and] it breeds a sense of self-doubt. You have to wonder, 'Am I where I am because of who I am or what I look like?'"

"Intellectual diversity is more important than ethnic diversity," Kao adds.

According to Davis J. Wang '97, a self-described conservative who says he believes affirmative action programs need reform, many Asian voters may also have been reacting on a personal level.

"It's very understandable that at times they feel victimized, since in fact they have been victimized," Wang says. "A program that is ostensibly trying to promote the interests of minorities is in fact being used to thwart the interests and dreams of Asian-Americans."

Wang says many Asian-Americans view affirmative action as restitution for discrimination against African-Americans in which they had no part. Supporters of affirmative action, he says, "haven't really shown to Asian-Americans why they should be the victim of a wrong that Caucasians have done to an African-American minority."

Sammy C. Lai '97 says he can sympathize with Asian-American students who oppose affirmative action.

"Harvard's pretty liberal but a lot of the minorities who have gotten here have worked really hard to get here," he says.

But Lai says he considers special efforts to recruit and admit minorities "a necessary evil."

"It's not nice, but it seems if diversity is something you value, it has to be done," Lai says.

Asian-Americans should not criticize the programs, he says, since the discrimination they face can be overcome with "extra effort."

"There has been much more intense discrimination against black Americans," Lai says.

Lai, who plans to go into banking, also notes that while Asian-Americans may not benefit as much from college recruitment efforts, they continue to benefit from work-place recruiting.

"There aren't that many Asians on the trading floor," Lai says.

But Kang says many Asian-Americans oppose affirmative action precisely because they have not benefited in the workplace.

"The way affirmative action works, it basically doesn't help the glass ceiling problem," Kang says. "Affirmative action is most effective at getting people in the door, but once you're there, I don't think it's that effective in promoting equity in the workplace."

Luo says affirmative action policies are still needed--and can still benefit Asian-Americans--in the corporate world.

"You don't see very often Fortune 500 companies with Asian-Americans in there," Luo says. "There's still the 'old boys' mentality."

Although the future of affirmative action programs remains in question, Cheng says she thinks opposition among Asian-Americans is on the rise.

"There's a growing trend of neo-conservative Asians," Cheng says. "It's about members of a minority coming out of a history of exclusion and seeing they are being accepted and thinking they can buy into that."CrimsonGrigory TovbisAffirmative action breeds a sense of self-doubt. You have to wonder, am I where I am because of who I am or what I look like?' --Yvonne M. Kao '00