Late-Breaking:MIT Involved in Brief to Supreme Court Supporting Affirmative Action
by Matt McGann

Twenty-five groups in higher education, including the Association of American Universities, to which MIT belongs, have filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court beseeching the court to not limit affirmative action in college and university admissions.

The case, Piscataway (NJ) Board of Education v. Taxman, was accepted by the Court on the final day of their 1996-7 session. It came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, who last year levied a decision that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers could not use diversity as a reason for making employment decisions based on race.

The case in question involves a decision by the Piscataway school board to grant tenure to a black teacher, Debra Williams, instead of a white teacher, Shaon Taxman. Williams and Taxman were hired into the school's business department on the same day, and, at the time of the school's decisions, were considered equally qualified. Williams was the only black teacher in the business department.

Many educators fear that the Supreme Court may now use the Piscataway case to overturn the 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke ruling, which provides the legal basis for current university affirmative action policies in admissions and financial aid.

The brief comes two months after the Clinton Administration filed its own brief, urging the Court not to make any sweeping decisions on the narrow case. The Administration's brief asserted that Piscataway "does not provide a suitable vehicle for resolving" the affirmative action issue. The Bush Administration supported Taxman, believing she was unjustly fired.

The educators' brief states that "the Court's precedents and the consensus among educators show that diversity in education serves a compelling interest" and since these diversity programs have been found to be constitutional, they are also allowed under Title VII.

MIT President Charles M. Vest has been an ardent supporter of affirmative action. The defense of affirmative action was central to his commencement address this year and to his most recent Presidential Report.