Besides referring to Harvard’s admissions plans, attorneys also cited Harvard studies to support their arguments.

Justice David H. Souter ’61 mentioned a study by Bok to challenge Solicitor General Ted Olson’s argument that affirmative action may in fact stigmatize minorities instead of benefit them.

Mahoney mentioned a study conducted by Orfield, in which a majority of Harvard and Michigan law students said that “students of different races” provided a “clearly positive element of their educational experience.”

Scalia’s quick remark—“Sure, they’re already in!”—evoked laughter from the courtroom audience, but also underlined that the Harvard brand played differently with different audiences.

Legal Letter

While the Court considers the Grutter and Gratz cases, two national conservative groups—the Center for Equal Opportunity and the Civil Rights Institute—are challenging the admissions policy of the HBS program.

Representatives from the groups sent a letter to Harvard’s general counsel in mid-March requesting that the HBS Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP)—a one-week summer academic seminar to introduce rising college seniors to life at the school—end what they called its “racially exclusive” admissions policy.

The program is currently open to African-American, Hispanic and American Indian students.

Since receiving the letter, Harvard has responded that it is too late for the program to consider altering this year’s admissions policy, but that it will reevaluate its admissions procedure after the Supreme Court ruling.

Edward Blum, director of Legal Affairs at the Civil Rights Institute, said that the organizations will file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights if SVMP admissions policies do not change for next year.

“Regardless of the ruling in the Michigan cases, I believe Harvard will eventually be sued over this program unless it is changed,” Blum said. “I think they very well intend to change it. What they have done is buy themselves another year to offer a program that’s both illegal and immoral.”

Brandon A. Gayle ’03, an SVMP alum and former Black Students Association president, said the lack of minority representation in business schools across the country renders current SVMP admission policy both fair and necessary.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for minority students to find out what business school is all about, Gayle said. “Given the lack of representation that exists now, [SVMP] is meant to serve a purpose and it’s serving that purpose very well.”

Blum said that his office and the Center for Equal Opportunity sent similar letters to more than 30 universities, and 60 percent have changed the admissions policies of such programs. Their efforts led MIT to open one of its summer programs—Minority Introduction to Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Science—to non-minorities for the first time.

Awaiting the Ruling