According to the plan summary, 54.5 percent of Harvard's "executive/ administrative/ managerial" employees--a category that includes middle and senior level administrators--were women. By contrast, only 7.6 percent of the employees in this category were minorities.

The Color of Learning

On April 14, 1997, the Association of American Universities (AAU) adopted a statement in support of affirmative action. Rudenstine helped draft the statement, which ran in both The New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Every Ivy League institution is a member of the AAU, with the exception of Dartmouth College.

"We speak first and foremost as educators," a portion of the statement reads. "We believe that our students benefit significantly from education that takes place within a diverse setting."

"Diverse setting" in this context refers to diversity within the student body. But the same kinds of problems attracting minorities have beset universities hiring for their top positions.

Universities used to excuse a small minority presence by pointing to a lack of minority professors and Ph.D. candidates.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education's 1997-1998 Almanac, nearly 14 percent of those who received doctorates in 1995 were minorities.

And, according to the Almanac, in 1993, 14 percent of the nation's full-time faculty at colleges and university were minorities, and about 14 percent of the nation's college and university administrators were minorities.