Lehman to lecture on Court decisions

Lehman

Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman will present his first universitywide lecture on campus about affirmative action in higher education Friday, March 5, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in 401 Warren Hall; a reception will follow.

In his talk, titled "From Bakke to Grutter: Lessons Learned," Lehman will discuss why affirmative action in higher education has been such a challenging concept for Americans to understand, and he will draw on his experience as dean of the University of Michigan Law School during the five and one-half years that Grutter v. Bollinger was making its way through the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court definitively upheld the Michigan Law School's use of affirmative action in its admission policy in an opinion issued in June 2003.

Lehman's lecture is free and open to the public, and it is part of the ongoing Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) Distinguished Faculty Program "Law, Norms and Society." Lehman's March 5 talk is a preamble to CIPA's Distinguished Faculty Conference, scheduled for March 12.