Public Statement on Affirmative Action
Larry R. Faulkner, President
Town Hall Meeting
Jester Center Auditorium
The University of Texas at Austin
November 16, 1998
There has been some public interest in my personal view concerning affirmative action. I wish now to make a formal statement of that view, which I am presenting in this forum both orally and in writing, so that a full and accurate record will henceforth be available to any interested party.
There are six points to my opinion, and here they are:
- I believe that The University of Texas at Austin has a sacred obligation to promote participation by students from all ethnic populations of Texas and to serve them effectively. I am committed to achieving our duty to the people by succeeding in this obligation.
- In nine years of administrative service at the level of dean and provost, I fully supported an institutional policy of affirmative action and compiled a publicly documented record of achievement in building diversity through the methods of affirmative action.
- Impressive progress has been made across America in strengthening the participation of minorities in the life of the nation. I doubt that progress would have been nearly so great without the methods of affirmative action, including the use of race-sensitive admissions and financial aid policies in leading universities.
- Although the decisions of the Fifth Circuit bar all colleges and universities in Texas from using race-sensitive admissions and financial aid policies, I remain fully committed to serving all of the people of Texas. I will pursue all legal means that we, as an institution, already know or can invent to promote diversity. Invention of new methods must be an important focus for us now.
- I believe that America and Texas will be healthier if we can find methods that do not involve race as a criterion in admissions or financial aid, yet succeed in promoting inclusion and diversity as well as (or better than) the established race-sensitive policies.
- I cannot assure the public that such methods exist, but I will work hard to find and develop them. Our challenge is to create new ways to realize the dream of equality and opportunity for all.
This is the view that I expressed at the Town Meeting of November 9. I have also conveyed this view for weeks in public speaking engagements and to the press.
This is not a position that can be conveyed in a single sentence, but I believe that it is a responsible view concerning a public issue of very great importance.
Now it is time to move to the real agenda, which must be the invention and pursuit of practical approaches to broader participation by the people of Texas in the life of this university.
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