Bok to speak of racial preferences in higher ed

Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University and co-author of the most comprehensive analysis of the effects of racial preferences in higher education, will be a guest speaker at the UW Board of Regents Academic and Student Affairs Committee meeting, 8:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 16 in the Walker-Ames Room.

This is a public meeting and members of the University community are invited to attend.

The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, is based on a study of 45,184 students who enrolled in 28 highly selective colleges in the years 1976 or 1989. Bok and fellow author William Bowen, former president of Princeton, say their study disproves the claim made by critics of affirmative action that black students with lower test scores would be better off at less-selective institutions, where their scores would be more in line with the average student.

Bok is the 300^th Anniversary University Professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. For three years, he was dean of the Harvard Law School before serving as Harvard’s president from 1971 to 1991. ¶