Colleges and universities aspire to a diverse student population, but the means used to achieve that diversity is coming under scrutiny.
A WGBH News poll finds 72 percent of Americans disagree with the consideration of race in admissions. At the same time, 86 percent say they value racial diversity on college campuses.
Next month, the trial begins in a case where a group called Students For Fair Admissions is suing Harvard, claiming the university discriminates against Asian-American applicants by holding them to higher academic and personal standards.
On the next episode of On Campus Radio, we look into the case and how Harvard and other selective schools consider race to diversify enrollment.
First, WGBH Reporter Kirk Carapezza tells us the story of one first-generation Harvard student who says the university's approach to admissions helped him.
We also sit down with Stella Flores, a professor of higher education policy at New York University and a leading expert on affirmative action, and Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, who opposes race-conscious admissions. Flores and Shapiro discuss the Harvard case and the implications for race-conscious admissions on campuses across the country.
Then we turn our attention to Columbia University, where one program aims to promote a "shared intellectual experience" for all students by teaching classic books.
Roosevelt Montas, the director of the Center for the Core Curriculum at Columbia, and Sarah Willie-LeBreton, the provost at Swarthmore College, discuss the benefits and limits of a core curriculum.
And finally, WGBH Senior Editor Ken Cooper breaks down the Harvard case and some of the key findings from our national poll on higher education.
Listen Sunday, September 23 at 8 p.m. for our next episode of On Campus Radio — WGBH's ongoing series about the future of higher education on 89.7 FM or on the WGBH app.
Our higher education reports are a collaboration with The Forum for the Future of Higher Education and made possible with support from Lumina Foundation and the Davis Educational Foundation.
