Johns Hopkins University today joined 14 peer institutions in filing an amicus brief supporting Harvard University in an appellate court case dealing with the consideration of race as a factor in a holistic college admissions process.
An appeal is currently pending at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the case of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University. The lawsuit was originally initiated in 2014, when Students for Fair Admissions filed a complaint alleging that Harvard's consideration of race and other factors, as part of its holistic and individualized admissions process, discriminates against Asian-Americans in violation of federal law.
"Johns Hopkins' participation in this filing reflects its core mission of matriculating students from diverse backgrounds, including underrepresented minorities," Johns Hopkins said in a statement. "We are continually accelerating efforts to provide social mobility opportunities for high achieving students from a wide range of experiences and backgrounds.
"As the brief states, Hopkins and its peers emphasize their belief in the profound importance of a diverse student body for their educational missions, and that the diversity they seek in their admissions policies is nuanced and multifaceted, and encompasses a diversity of perspectives, experiences, goals, backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and interests. They strive to enroll a diverse student body because doing so significantly deepens students' educational experience. Diversity encourages students to question their own assumptions, to test received truths, and to appreciate the complexity of the modern world. This larger understanding prepares graduates to pursue innovation in every field, to be active and engaged citizens equipped to wrestle with the great questions of the day, and to expand humanity's learning and accomplishment."
Johns Hopkins joins Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, University of Chicago, Penn, Vanderbilt, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale in the filing.
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