Promise and Dilemma: Perspectives on Racial Diversity and Higher Education

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Issues of diversity and affirmative action have turned elite higher education in the United States into contested terrain. Rights revolutions in the country have raised hopes that have proved difficult to fulfill. Most particularly, expectations about access and opportunity have collided with widely held beliefs that educational institutions should treat each person fairly as an individual and should promote high academic standards. This collection of essays gathers the reflections of a group of leading educators on whether and how objectives of diversity, equity and excellence can be simultaneously pursued. The essays focus on constructive proposals and on the role of social and political consensus.

Reviews

"The topic of this book is timely, the contents are excellent, and the authors are eminent. Promise and Dilemma should be widely read by university administrators and faculty, by policymakers who are looking for ways of dealing productively with the vexed issue of affirmative action, and by the educated lay public."Jennifer Hochschild, Harvard University
"I would feel a great deal better about the future of the country if every policymaker at the state and federal level read Promise and Dilemma, and I would be overjoyed if a large part of the public could benefit from its multiple perspectives."Sheldon Hackney, University of Pennsylvania

Author Bio

Eugene Y. Lowe, Jr., is Associate Provost of Northwestern University.