The ACLU Defends Academic Freedom

... in order to reduce the number of Jews (1922) / Blacks (1962) / Asians (2022)

Source

The American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold universities’ ability to consider race in college admissions. They argue that the Supreme Court should uphold the ability of institutions of higher education to consider race in a holistic, race conscious review during the admissions process. They claim it is the extension of a university’s academic freedom and that “the proposal to remove consideration of race in admissions conflicts with the ability of a university to select its student body”.

True, that. After all - Universities, in particular Ivy league, have had a rich experience in applying “holistic admission processes” and “race/sex/ethnicity conscious approach” in order to carefully “select their student body”. Some examples include:

• “The anti-Semitic feeling among the students is increasing, and it grows in proportion to the increase in the number of Jews. If their number should become 40% of the student body, the race feeling would become intense.” (Harvard’s president Abbot Lawrence Lowell, justifying a semi-official Jewish quota, 1922. The quota was implemented via… you guessed it - a “holistic” admission process designed to filter out as many Jews as possible).

• “For your information and guidance it has been found necessary to discontinue consideration of all applications for admission or registration for the second semester which were received after January 25 1961. Your application was received subsequent to such date and thus we must advise you not to appear for registration.” (the University of Mississippi, rejecting James Meredith after finding out he was black, 1961).

• “Look for women who have four brothers, and if not four, then three; they would be the most likely to be able to cope with being surrounded by men in every aspect of their lives. Avoid admitting anyone who was an only child.” (Henry Chauncey, Assistant to Yale’s president, devising a “holistic” approach to cap the number of women, 1968 - the first year Yale admitted women as undergraduates).

• Harvard consistently ranks Asian-American applicants lower than others on traits like “positive personality,” likability, courage, kindness and being “widely respected,” despite achieving higher admission scores than any other group (FFSA lawsuit, 2018).

That’s “holistic admission” for you, all in the name of “equal protection and academic freedom”. What will be different this time around?