For more than three decades, since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, affirmative action has been a way of life in this country. Yet, in recent years, affirmative action programs have come under attack. This past July, for example, a federal court ruled that a Texas university could not give preferences to minorities in its admissions process -- sparking cries of indignation from proponents of affirmative action and crows of victory from those who oppose such programs.
The controversies surrounding affirmative action will be examined in a symposium being held at Yale Thursday-Friday, Oct. 17-18. Scholars, legal experts, educators and spokepersons on all sides of the issue will explore the legal, institutional and cultural factors that are central to the debate over affirmative action.
"An informed discussion of affirmative action, what we think of it and how we talk about it, seems imperative at the present moment. And we have assembled a fine and varied group to do so," says Peter Brooks, the Tripp Professor of Humanities and acting director of the Whitney Humanities Center. He and Paul Gewirtz, the Potter Stewart Professor of Constitutional Law, are organizers of the symposium.
"This is a good moment to reflect on where we are -- not only the important legal and policy questions, but also the language and rhetoric we use to discuss them," notes Professor Gewirtz.
Participants will include New York Times columnists Anthony Lewis and Richard Bernstein; Lani Guinier, a nominee for the post of assistant attorney general for civil rights; literary critic Stanley Fish; psychologist Jerome Bruner; Abigail Thernstrom, author of "Whose Votes Count? Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights"; Richard Kahlenberg, author of "The Remedy: Class, Race and Affirmative Action"; and other distinguished experts in the field.
The symposium will take place at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. All sessions are free and open to the public.
The program will open on Oct. 17 at 1:45 p.m. with a panel titled "An Historical Imperative?" Among the questions to be addressed are: How do understandings of the past shape the current debate? What are the consequences of a "corrective" discourse of affirmative action? And, are there shared ethical implications to be drawn from the role of race in American society, or simply a quarrel of historical interpretations?
A panel titled "The Meaning of Diversity," at 4 p.m., will examine how the rhetoric of diversity differs from other discourses used to justify affirmative action. Participants will also discuss the appeal of the language of diversity for proponents of affirmative action and why opponents find it so objectionable.
"Affirmative Action and the Future of the University" will be the focus of a panel discussion at 10 a.m. on Oct. 18. The panelists will look at the university as a prime site of real and symbolic contest in the battle over affirmative action, pitting merit-based selection of students and faculty against selection on the grounds of race or gender. Among the questions they will address are: Does the definition of "merit" emerge from narrow and unexamined logic? How can the impact of affirmative action on the university be evaluated? And, how have the very terms of the debate changed the university?
For further information about the conference, call 432-0673.