Responding to the Supreme Court Ruling on Affirmative Action

On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decisions in two cases concerning the consideration of race in college admissions, determining that race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional. Haverford was among a number of colleges and universities that joined an amicus brief in support of the consideration of race as one of many possible factors in admission processes, and when the decision was announced, the College issued a statement authored by President Wendy Raymond, Jess Lord, vice president and dean of admission and financial aid, and Nikki Young, vice president for institutional equity and access. Here is an excerpt.

We are deeply disappointed in and disagree with these rulings. We want to affirm for all members of the greater Haverford community that the College is unwavering in its commitment to equitable access to education and to the essential nature of diversity in the collegiate experience in and out of the classroom, and to the responsibility to build diversity across our community.

Notably, the Court has prescribed an approach to admission that is grounded in an individual’s qualities—as Justice Roberts wrote, students “must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race.” Haverford’s approach to education, from admission through graduation, is marked by exactly that: a focus on the individual.

The decisions also leave room for colleges like Haverford to consider how race has impacted an applicant’s life, should an applicant raise the issue ... “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.” Haverford is, of course, committed to compliance with the law. We are confident that we will be able to continue our holistic approach to evaluating admission applications, a process that strives to understand each candidate as an individual and in the fullness of their life experiences and contexts. As our recently completed strategic plan, Haverford 2030 , makes clear, we will also continue to assert the central importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access to our mission and our ability to provide the best liberal arts education possible.

The Supreme Court’s decisions will create challenges for Haverford. We have been working steadily and thoughtfully, ahead of the Court’s rulings, to consider how our approaches in multiple areas—including admission, financial aid, and student life—could be made to align with Court rulings.

Cool Classes

Course title: “Cultures of Collecting”

Taught by: Associate Professor of History Darin Hayton

What Hayton has to say about the course: We often think of museums as places that present accepted knowledge. They make visible—we assume—what we already know to be true. But this misunderstands the work that museums do in creating knowledge.

We start the course contending with three related practices: collecting, organizing, and displaying, which are the foundations on which all museums are built. The goal is to develop critical methods and skills that can help us discern the different motivations for and consequences of these practices. Far from being neutral, collecting, organizing, and displaying are always and necessarily exercises of authority.

The course balances the more theoretical work with historical examples, particularly the rise of Kunst- und Wunderkammer in the 15th and 16th centuries—or the “cabinets of curiosities” that were the precursors of modern museums. Wealthy families such as the Medici in Italy or the Fuggers in Germany came to realize they could assert and project their authority through the collections they amassed thanks to their extensive trading networks.

Collections offered a shared set of practices that enabled trading and banking families to vie for cultural authority with princes and nobles. The ability to collect exotic and foreign objects, arrange them in their collections, and say what those objects were became a measure of prestige and power. It gave patrons the ability to shape knowledge about the world, both natural and human-made.

Finally, patrons carefully controlled access to their collections. The privileged were welcomed while others were left imagining what treasures might be on display. Modern, public museums share many similarities with these early, private collections.

Museums have always created knowledge. I hope students leave this course with a richer sense of the ways museums shape both what we know and what we think is worth knowing.

Cool Classes is a recurring series on the Haverblog. For more, go to hav. to/coolclasses.