Court ruling is victory for higher ed diversity

The Supreme Court ruled in support of racial and ethnic diversity in higher education in two cases on admissions policy at the University of Michigan, announced June 23. A defendant in the case involving Michigan's law school was the school's dean, Jeffrey Lehman, who will be Cornell's new president starting July 1.

Cornell joined four other leading private universities in filing an amicus curiae brief in support of Michigan, in which it argued that universities' constitutionally protected rights to academic freedom were among the issues the court needed to consider (see http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/03/2.20.03/amicus.html).

Following the rulings, higher education leaders across the country issued a joint statement (see http://www.news.cornell.edu/campus/ACE-AAU_statement.html). Cornell is a member of the American Council on Education, which drafted the statement, and the Association of American Universities, which seconded it. Look for an article about the rulings and Cornell by University Counsel James Mingle in a future issue of the Cornell Chronicle. For more on the cases, see Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute Web site: http://www.law.cornell.edu/.