https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/harvard-asian-admission.html
Open, shut.
Would one expect plaintiffs to say otherwise?
DOJ backs plaintiffs asking judge to release documents.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/06/politics/harvard-admissions-lawsuit/index.html
I am a conservative, and often disagree vehemently with liberals, but it’s clear the President and his administration have an axe to grind with the liberal establishment, as typified by Harvard.
The longer I’ve lived, one point I’ve come come to appreciate more and more is Harvard’s view that judging excellence is a multifaceted endeavor, one that certainly cannot be distilled into mere test scores and GPA’s.
The college experience itself is far more than that anyway, and it is greatly enriched by living and learning alongside people possessing a range of differing strengths, backgrounds, and qualities.
If I were a student/applicant of Harvard and my admissions information (regardless of it being redacted, because are are unidentifiable components) was released to the public, without my express consent, I’d be very, very, angry.
Not just Harvard, I wouldn’t mind for the release of such information, in aggregate to the public, regardless of school rankings. Group them by ethnicity, social economic income, special factors like legacies, athletic or other talents, First-Generation; and Internationals by regions vs the medians of academic criteria.
The S of a good friend of mine is WL’d by a Top 30 school, which acceptance rate went down 9% from last year… and yet the school advertised one URM grp acceptances up 13%, and another URM grp up 33%. The school has gotten 10% increase in overall applications. So what does that mean? How can I reconcile such data w/o the conclusion that some ORM grps are offering fewer spots even with the increase in application numbers. Why don’t these schools just put up a sign - If you are an ORM, beware, we are going to be whole lot more selective with you folks, just so you know. That would be way more honest in dealing with the whole situation. JMHO.
Why? If it’s redacted*, it’s not like it’s a privacy issue. It makes the whole process more transparent and enables researchers to do work they couldn’t otherwise.
*I guess you could argue redaction is inadequate…
Interestingly, it’s actually a conservative activist who recruited and is paying for the plaintiffs and lawyers to advance his own agenda (anti-affirmative action).
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-harvard-discrimination/
@fragbot, I agree with @labegg. Even redacting names does not help.
With the internet, for example, it would be very easy for a classmate who knew someone who applied to look up the valedictorian of X high school in 2012 and then read her very personal essay and recommendation letters. As an applicant, I would find it very embarrassing to have all of that out there. Redaction is not enough. They would need to somehow aggregate data but with holistic admissions process as Harvard’s defense, I’m not sure it works.
I think it is fine for the attorneys and judges to see but no reason it needs to be public.
Without seeing the data, I don’t know if the redaction is inadequate. I’d agree it might be.
“Interestingly, it’s actually a conservative activist who recruited and is paying for the plaintiffs and lawyers to advance his own agenda (anti-affirmative action).”
No surprise there. There are definitely folks with an agenda.
Excellent news. Just redact the names - or else just provide the statistics - and we’ll take it from there, thank you.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
Huge overreach.
Redact? I was wondering about specific recent Harvard applicants.
Well, I want to see some specific files. Show me the Kennedy kids or Jared kushner or malia Obama.
Got to admit- it would be fun.
As usual, everyone has an agenda. Harvard has its agenda. The plaintiffs have a different one, and the Justice departments has its own, which for the moment seems to align with the plaintiffs.
At this point, I wouldn’t automatically assume that one agenda is more noble than the others.
I don’t think this is a conservative-liberal issue AT ALL. I think it’s an issue of fundamental fairness. Asian-Americans shouldn’t have an easier, or a more difficult, time getting into Harvard than anybody else. Neither should any other American, regardless of his or her background.
What was that Martin Luther King said about judging a man based on the content of his character?
Whatever the agendas of parties in the lawsuit, more transparency is always preferable. Surely data can be aggregated in such a way that protect individual privacy.
I can’t imagine any way to release the essays and sufficiently protect student privacy. Some of those essays are very persona and very identifiable. Even if the authors are not recognized, can you imagine the pain if some of those essays go viral and are mocked and ridiculed online? Its not worth it. And without those essays, there is no way to determine the validity of the process. The lawyers may get to see them, but we never should.
I agree with above posts, don’t make it public. Man, can you imagine essays and such from years back being brought out? or even two years back? All those applicants didn’t sign on for that and if that happens, I hope Harvard Law ties things up in courts for years! Anyone who applied to H in the listed years could have some grounds somewhere! And if the originator of the lawsuit isn’t asian and not getting any help from Asian institutions or ties to Asian connections somewhere overt or covert, I’ll sniff my baseball son’s cleats!