As part of what he describes as his “learning process,” Hyman observed Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzimmons ’67 and his colleagues sift through applications for several hours last week.

“I came away extremely pleased at the diversity of the applicant pool and at the way in which the staff carefully views all aspects of a prospective student—with no recourse to reductive formulas,” Hyman said.

And Assistant to the President James S. Hoyte ’65, who has been in charge of overseeing the University’s affirmative action program since 1993, notes that Hyman has “expressed a strong interest in seeing the tradition of support for diversity continue.”

A Legacy of Advocacy

In recent history, diversity has played a major role in Harvard presidential policies.

Though it was only briefly mentioned in his 1991 installation address, diversity became a top priority for Neil L. Rudenstine, Summers’ predecessor.

Even before he officially began his Harvard tenure, Rudenstine worked with Gates to draw pre-eminent scholars to Harvard and build the Afro-American studies department.

Gates describes Rudenstine’s role as crucial, not only in developing the department, but also in attracting minority students to Harvard.

“The yield of black students went up dramatically after they started building the Afro-American Studies department,” he says.

And diversity was one of the few topics regularly addressed by Rudenstine from his often silent presidential pulpit.

In response to the 1996 ruling of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case Hopwood v. Texas, which forbid the University of Texas from using race as a factor in law school admissions, Rudenstine issued a statement to the University community.

“Race has historically been, and still remains, a significant factor...that helps shape the outlooks, experiences, and opportunities of millions of people,” he wrote.

Hoyte credits the leadership of Rudenstine and former Provost Harvey V. Fineberg ’67 with the development of “stronger and more substantive” diversity initiatives in the University employment policies.

“There was a significant investment by many of the schools and departments around the University to try to make Harvard a community that truly welcomes and supports diversity,” he says.

Rudenstine himself considered advancing diversity at Harvard one of his proudest accomplishments. A collection of Rudenstine’s comments on diversity serves as the opening section of Pointing Our Thoughts, an anthology published last year of his speeches as Harvard president.