THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained a Nov. 21 memorandum from Harvard University’s government department chairman, Kenneth Shepsle, that attempts to answer questions about the department’s use of quotas in admissions that were originally raised in Elena Neuman’s Oct. 9 cover story, “Harvard’s Sins of Admission.” The story demonstrated how the government department used a two-track system for admitting students and granting financial aid, and has understandably caused a firestorm in Cambridge.
Shepsle’s memo assures all concerned that the department’s admissions process is “merit-based” and minimizes the extent to which “diversity” considerations come into play. In addition, in a letter Harvard is sending out in response to inquiries from disgruntled alumni and others, Shepsle assures one and all that “we do not have separate admissions processes for minorities and non-minorities” and that he wants the admissions committee to ” focus on intellectual merit.” This means either that Harvard is blowing smoke, or that the government department has in fact changed its admissions procedures, but is unwilling officially to acknowledge doing so for fear of antagonizing all of those (like the graduate students “of color” whose letter was published in the Dec. 11 issue) who will scream if there is any public retreat from the “affirmative-action” regime described in Neuman’s article.
