The Chronicle of Higher Education has been publishing daily reports from the Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard College trial in federal district court in Boston. Yesterday’s installment discussing the last day of testimony this past week contains a real blockbuster:
Adam K. Mortara, a lawyer for [the plaintiffs], questioned Marlyn E. McGrath, director of admissions for Harvard College, the university’s undergraduate division, about how race and religion are considered in admissions.
“Harvard does not track the religious identity of applicants, do you?” Mortara said. At his prompting, McGrath explained that when applicants check a box on the Common Application indicating their religion, that information is not seen by Harvard admissions officials. She said that practice had been established on the advice of Harvard’s lawyers….
Mortara asked McGrath if that lack of information was an obstacle in evaluating an applicant. She said it was not.
“Would you consider it to be a disadvantage if you could not consider their race?” he asked. McGrath said it would.
In short, the only “diversity” Harvard cares about is skin color.
