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.