The bulk of Harvard’s brief argues for the importance of diversity and outlines the methods Harvard uses to ensure a diverse student body, ultimately recommending that the court uphold the Bakke decision and both of Michigan’s admissions policies.

Today, Harvard says it looks at race as one of many factors in admissions.

“Admissions officials give special attention to, among others, applicants from economically and/or culturally disadvantaged backgrounds, those with unusual athletic ability, those with special artistic talents, those who would be the first in their families to attend college, those whose parents are alumni or alumnae, and those who have overcome various identifiable hardships,” the brief states.

It further argues that “an individualized admissions process” does not “become a ‘quota’ simply because the number of admitted minority students may not vary radically from year to year.”

Brief History

Harvard has long played an active role in advocating the use of race as a factor in admissions.

In addition to his own advocacy for affirmative action, Bok said that it was Harvard that convinced the University of California to allow Harvard Professor Emeritus Archibald Cox to argue the Bakke case in front of the court.

Neil L. Rudenstine, Bok’s successor as president, publicly criticized the 1996 ruling of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case Hopwood v. Texas, which forbade the University of Texas from using race as a factor in law school admissions.

Rudenstine organized a statement on diversity signed by members of the Association of American Universities and published in The New York Times in April 1997. He was honored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that year for his efforts.

And along with Bowen, Rudenstine co-authored an article in favor of race-conscious admissions policies which appeared in the Feb. 7 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education, and was cited in Harvard’s brief.

Bok’s connections to the affirmative action debate, however, don’t end with his scholarship and advocacy work.

With the court likely to split down the middle, one of his former Stanford classmates could end up casting the deciding vote.

“I went to college with Sandra Day O’Connor, but we didn’t talk too much about preferential admissions,” Bok said.

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.