MIT Submits Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Harvard/UNC Admissions Cases

MIT, together with Stanford, IBM, and Aeris Communications, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina asking the Court to uphold over 40 years of precedent allowing colleges and universities to consider race as one of many factors in admissions.

The joint academic/industry brief addresses (1) the vital role that diversity, including racial diversity, plays in achieving the educational missions of institutions of higher education for all students, with particular focus on STEM fields; (2) the importance of diversity to our nation’s success in the global economy; and (3) why consideration of race as one among many factors in the admission of students to selective STEM degree programs is essential to achieve these critical educational goals.

As the brief explains, “Not only does diversity contribute to better outcomes for students in STEM — it contributes to better science. As such, American businesses at the forefront of innovation in STEM depend on the availability of a diverse cross-section of talented graduates from the nation’s most rigorous and elite institutions.”