Defending Diversity: Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan - Hardcover

Gurin, Patricia; Lehman, Jeffrey S.; Lewis, Earl; Dey, Eric L.; Hurtado, Sylvia; Gurin, Gerald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0472113070 ISBN 13: 9780472113071

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 2004

Synopsis

Even as lawsuits challenging its admissions policies made their way through the courts, the University of Michigan carried the torch for affirmative action in higher education.
In June 2003, the Supreme Court vindicated UM's position on affirmative action when it ruled that race may be used as a factor for universities in their admissions programs, thus confirming what the UM had argued all along: diversity in the classroom translates to a beneficial and wide-ranging social value. With the green light given to the law school's admissions policies, Defending Diversity validates the positive benefits gained by students in a diverse educational setting.
Written by prominent University of Michigan faculty, Defending Diversity is a timely response to the court's ruling. Providing factual background, historical setting, and the psychosocial implications of affirmative action, the book illuminates the many benefits of a diverse higher educational setting -- including preparing students to be full participants in a pluralistic democracy -- and demonstrates why affirmative action is necessary to achieve that diversity.
Defending Diversity is a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion on affirmative action in higher education. Perhaps more important, it is a valuable record of the history, events, arguments, and issues surrounding the original lawsuits and the Supreme Court's subsequent ruling, and helps reclaim the debate from those forces opposed to affirmative action.
Patricia Gurin is Professor Emerita, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan. Jeffrey S. Lehman, former Dean of the University of Michigan Law School, is President of Cornell University. Earl Lewis is Dean of Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan.

About this title

About the Author

Patricia Gurin is Professor Emerita, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.

Jeffrey S. Lehman , former Dean of the University of Michigan Law School, is President of Cornell University.

Earl Lewis is Dean of Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan.

Reviews

The Supreme Court's 2003 decision upholding the affirmative action program at the University of Michigan has cast great public attention on the policy used by that university to maintain diversity in its classrooms. In this collection of essays, prominent faculty at the university offer historic legal and social context for the policy and its context in the overall national debate about value and efficacy of affirmative action. Earl Lewis, graduate school dean, begins by examining the historical quest for genuine racial equality at the university and the preexisting foundational basis for the admissions policy. Jeffrey Lehman, dean of the law school, explores the changing language of diversity and the competing values of colorblindness versus integration. His essay is particularly valuable for its analysis of Justice Powell's expansion on the value of diversity in education to include democratic ideals in shaping our national identity. Readers interested in broad historical and social analyses of affirmative action will appreciate this book. Vernon Ford
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Edition details

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472113070
• ISBN 13: 9780472113071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224