Promise and Dilemma: Perspectives on Racial Diversity and Higher Education - The William G. Bowen Series

Commendation Quotes: The topic of this book is timely, the contents are excellent, and the authors are eminent. "Promise and Dilemma" should be widely read by university administrators and faculty, by policymakers who are looking for ways of dealing productively with the vexed issue of affirmative action, and by the educated lay public. Commendation Quotes: I would feel a great deal better about the future of the country if every policymaker at the state and federal level read "Promise and Dilemma," and I would be overjoyed if a large part of the public could benefit from its multiple perspectives. Table of Contents: ForewordAcknowledgmentsContributors1Promise and Dilemma: Incorporating Racial Diversity in Selective Higher Education32Promoting High Academic Achievement among Non-Asian Minorities473A Threat in the Air: How Stereotypes Shape Intellectual Identity and Performance924A Practitioner's View from Texas: Comments on the Essays by L. Scott Miller and Claude M. Steele1295Assessment and Student Diversity: Comments on the Essays by L. Scott Miller and Claude M. Steele1356Equity and Excellence - Strange Bedfellows? A Case Study of South African Higher Education1457Facing the Dilemmas of Difference: Comments on the Essay by Mamphela Ramphele1628Problematics of Affirmative Action: A View from California1699What a University Can Learn and Teach about Conflict and Difference: Comments on the Essay by Neil J. Smelser193Epilogue199Index203Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Publisher Marketing: Issues of diversity and affirmative action have turned elite higher education in the United States into contested terrain. Rights revolutions in the country have raised hopes that have proved difficult to fulfill. Most particularly, expectations about access and opportunity--redressing the unfairness of the past--have collided with widely held beliefs: that educational institutions should treat each person fairly as an individual and should promote high academic standards. "Promise and Dilemma" gathers the reflections of a group of leading educators on whether and how objectives of diversity, equity, and excellence can be simultaneously pursued. Empirical in orientation, these essays focus on constructive proposals and on the role of social and political consensus. Furthermore, they contrast what we believe we know with what empirical data and institutional experience can teach us. Eugene Lowe's substantive introduction reviews the history of the practice of affirmative action in colleges and universities. The other essays are by L. Scott Miller of The College Board; Mamphela Ramphele, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town; Neil J. Smelser of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford; and Claude M. Steele of Stanford University. Also included are commentaries by Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School; Richard J. Light, Harvard Law School; Chang Lin Tien, the University of California, Berkeley; and Philip Uri Treisman, the University of Texas. Publisher Marketing: Issues of diversity and affirmative action have turned elite higher education in the United States into contested terrain. Rights revolutions in the country have raised hopes that have proved difficult to fulfill. Most particularly, expectations about access and opportunity--redressing the unfairness of the past--have collided with widely held beliefs: that educational institutions should treat each person fairly as an individual and should promote high academic standards. "Promise and Dilemma" gathers the reflections of a group of leading educators on whether and how objectives of diversity, equity, and excellence can be simultaneously pursued. Empirical in orientation, these essays focus on constructive proposals and on the role of social and political consensus. Furthermore, they contrast what we believe we know with what empirical data and institutional experience can teach us. Eugene Lowe's substantive introduction reviews the history of the practice of affirmative action in colleges and universities. The other essays are by L. Scott Miller of The College Board; Mamphela Ramphele, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town; Neil J. Smelser of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford; and Claude M. Steele of Stanford University. Also included are commentaries by Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School; Richard J. Light, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Chang-Lin Tien, the University of California, Berkeley; and Philip Uri Treisman, the University of Texas.

Contributor Bio:  Lowe, Eugene Y, Jr. is Associate Provost of Northwestern University.