Midway through his Samuel DuBois Cook Society speech Thursday night in Page Auditorium, William Bowen recalled one of the best conversations he has had in the afterglow of his highly acclaimed book, The Shape of the River, which he co-authored with former Harvard President Derek Bok.
Bowen explained that, over lunch one afternoon, Washington lawyer Vernon Jordan chatted about his college days at Chicago's DePaul University, where he was the only black student in his class. After months of a "cold war" between Jordan and his two freshman-year roommates, he returned home to find them deep in discussion. Summarizing the realization that had fueled their discussion, one of the roommates noted, "Vernon, you are just like us!"
College encounters like this still have immense value today, contend Bok and Bowen-former Princeton University president and current president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. They back up their argument with a massive, never-before-analyzed database to support the use of race-based admissions at highly-selective universities.
The study's extensive compilation of empirical data examines affirmative action's effects on graduation rates, field of study, performance, diversity and post-college life. They researched cohorts of black and white students matriculating in 1951, 1976 and 1989 at 28 selective universities, including Duke.
Bowen outlined the aims of affirmative action to the crowd of about 600 people, including many prominent administrators from Duke and other universities in the Triangle area. Bowen said the two goals of affirmative action are creating a diverse educational environment and preparing larger numbers of minority students to enter professions and assume positions of civic and community leadership.
Based on their research, Bowen and Bok concluded that universities have made great strides toward achieving those goals. They also concluded that their data dispelled several myths perpetuated by opponents of affirmative action.
One such belief is that affirmative action fails to pair students with universities that are appropriate for their abilities.
Explaining that myth's rationale, he said, "When Duke admits an African-American student with an 1100 SAT score, Duke is doing that student a disservice. They will be overwhelmed, outnumbered and demoralized. If that student had been able to go to a school where everyone had 1100 SATs, the 'fit' would have been better."
To counter that belief, Bowen displayed a slide with a graph showing the graduation rates of students with SAT scores ranging from 1000-1200.
At more selective institutions, the students had higher graduation rates-not lower ones as the "fit" argument would predict.
"The 'fit' hypothesis deserves a rest, because there is just nothing to be said for it," Bowen concluded.
Another myth dispelled by the data is the idea that using race-based admissions will "dumb-down" a university, because more minority students will major in "soft" subjects. Bowen's data showed that, instead, the percentages of black and white students majoring in math, science and engineering were identical.
Other notable findings included the dramatically higher levels of community involvement of black students over white students after graduation. Additionally, the study found that white graduates favor affirmative action policies.
Bowen prefaced his presentation by listing the limitations of his research, specifically the focus on blacks over other minorities. He explained that available data-which spans back many years-did not include Hispanic students in statistically significant numbers.
He finished the speech by noting the policy implications of eliminating affirmative action. "Whether things are getting better matters a lot," he said. "If we were now to dismantle policies that I think by all standards have been successful, what does that say about our trajectory?"
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