News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301Contact: Patricia Coen 609/258-5764
Date: February 4, 1999
Former Princeton President William G. Bowen to Speak on Race and University Admissions
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Former Princeton University President William G. Bowen, now president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will give a talk titled "The Shape of the River" at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs on Thursday, February 25, at 4:30 p.m. in Robertson Hall, Dodds Auditorium.
Bowen’s most recent book, The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, written with former Harvard President Derek Bok, is an in-depth examination of affirmative action, including how race-sensitive admissions policies work and their effects on students of different races. It includes an unprecedented study of the academic, employment, and personal histories of more than 45,000 students of all races who attended academically selective universities between the 1970s and the early 1990s. The study reveals how much race-sensitive admissions increase the likelihood that blacks will be admitted to selective universities and demonstrates the effect that the termination of these policies would have on the number of minority students at different kinds of selective institutions. The book also reflects on the issue of whether the concept of "merit" is compatible with an effort to achieve a racially diverse student body.
Former Sen. Bill Bradley called the book, "an invaluable resource for those interested in American higher education and more generally, race in America."
Bowen, who was Princeton University’s president from 1972 until 1988, is the author of many other books, including Universities and Their Leadership (with Princeton President Harold T. Shapiro), The Charitable Nonprofits: An Analysis of Institutional Dynamics and Characteristics, Inside the Boardroom, and In Pursuit of the Ph.D. In 1988, he became the president of the Mellon Foundation, "a not-for-profit charitable foundation with assets of over $3 billion that aims to aid and promote such religious, charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes as may be in the furtherance of the public welfare or tend to promote the well-doing or well-being of mankind."
His talk is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School.