Committee of 100 Calls for Greater Transparency in College Admissions Criteria

NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In the ongoing 2014 lawsuit by Students for Fair Admission (SFFA) against Harvard University, alleging discrimination by Harvard against Asian American applicants, the Committee of 100 (C100) is disturbed by some of the initial discovery findings and calls on Harvard and other top colleges to be fully transparent in their admissions criteria so as to dispel any notions of discrimination in student selection on the basis of race. In the discovery process to date, SFFA points to the consistently lower scores by Harvard admissions officers of Asian American applicants in the "personality" category (when these same applicants have outperformed all other racial groups in academics and extracurricular activities) as strong evidence of bias and discrimination against Asian Americans. Harvard's failure heretofore to fully disclose its evaluation criteria and its motion to seal any relevant information that may shed light on this fuels suspicions that there may be some kind of hidden systemic bias against Asian Americans. To prove otherwise, Harvard should be transparent and forthcoming about the criteria it uses to evaluate applications. This same transparency and accountability asked of Harvard should be applied across the board to other top colleges and universities to ensure the integrity of the nation's higher education system. C100 also urges these same colleges to increase the diversity of their admissions office staff and increase the representation of Asian Americans on these decision-making bodies. This will allow for a more holistic admissions review process and guard against the possibility of implicit bias in admissions officers making them more likely to rate highly and choose those who are more like themselves.

Link to Full Statement

The Committee of 100 is an international, non-partisan leadership organization of prominent Chinese Americans in business, government, academia, and the arts. For over 25 years, the Committee has been committed to a dual mission of promoting the full participation of Chinese Americans in all fields of American life, and encouraging constructive relations between the peoples of the United States and Greater China. www.committee100.org

Contact: Frank H. Wu, President
[email protected] or 212-371-6565

SOURCE Committee of 100

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http://www.committee100.org