If part of the intent of the recent affirmative-action lawsuits brought against universities was to send a chill through admissions offices, it doesn’t seem to be working. Most of the discussion at a conference here this week on race and admissions was about how to do a better job bringing underrepresented minority students to campuses, not about whether it can be done at all.
“We do have to be creative about solutions on equity,” said Stella M. Flores, an associate dean and associate professor at New York University.
The lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were discussed at the University of Southern California’s Admissions, Race and Identity conference, but they were not front and center. Instead, the roughly 200 admissions officials, professors, and other administrators got a rundown on the research on identity and access to college….