Bok, who in 1998 co-authored The Shape of the River, a book defending affirmative action in higher education, added that a percent plan completely contradicts Harvard’s admissions policy.
“It’s an anathema to a place like Harvard. If Harvard said, ‘you have to finish in the top quarter of a percent of your high school class,’ imagine the student body,” Bok said. “It would be a much less interesting class than the one we have.”
The Studies
In its in-depth look at Florida’s program, the CRP report states that the program has not been very effective in ensuring diversity.
“There is simply no basis for the claim that Florida’s Talented 20 Program solved the affirmative action issue. In fact, this report indicates the percent plan was virtually irrelevant,” Orfield wrote in the foreword of the report, which was authored by research associates Patricia Marin and Edgar K. Lee.
The report concludes that “the minimal success of the plan relies on race-attentive recruitment, retention and financial aid policies.”
The second study, conducted by research associates Catherine L. Horn and Stella M. Flores, concluded that percent plans, even when supplemented by other race-conscious procedures, do not offer an effective alternative to considering race and ethnicity in admissions.
But Gloria White, deputy assistant commissioner at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, stressed the importance of looking at all of the initiatives the state is taking to ensure diversity beyond the 10 percent plan.
“None of us in Texas thought it would be the only thing done to achieve diversity,” White said, citing other Texas initiatives which aim to complement the percent plan, including a state scholarship program and increased minority recruiting efforts.
Looking Ahead
With the Supreme Court scheduled to hear the Michigan cases in April, the CRP studies will likely factor into the debate—particularly since Bush has expressed his plans to emphasize the percent plan as an alternative to the University of Michigan policies.
“The work of the Civil Rights Project has been used in court cases before,” said Horn, who co-authored one of the reports.
“I think it’s every researcher’s hope that their work is useful in some practical way.”
—Staff writer Jessica E. Vascellero contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.