Dean’s statement on Supreme Court rulings

On behalf of Yale, President Salovey has offered a statement about the Supreme Court’s decisions restricting the consideration of race in admissions. I urge you to read the President’s statement. I want to add a footnote.

 

One of the greatest contributions that the U.S. has made to the world is our higher education system. While there are multiple factors that have made our universities and colleges globally influential, one of them is the way we practice freedom of expression. We realize that the way to make progress is to present new ideas, to challenge them, and to allow new frameworks of thinking to emerge out of what survives the debates. This depends on having a group of people who are diverse across all dimensions, and who have been socialized in different ways to debate ideas. Today’s rulings will make it more difficult to gather such diversity. On a national level, the rulings also overturn an important systemic correction that has helped address some of the legacies of slavery. Addressing—even partially—our “original sin” is not only morally important but has made us better as a country. We will comply with the law, and we will work within its limits to foster diverse perspectives. The quality of our academic institutions requires it.