But in the Medical Education Center, people filled the seats, stood along the walls, and sat in the aisles to hear President Neil L. Rudenstine, Medical School Dean Joseph Martin, and several other speakers talk about the importance of diversity and tolerance at the Medical School and other institutions of higher education. With the help of affirmative action, the Medical School and the School of Dental Medicine have graduated 700 minority students in the last 30 years. This year's entering class is similar to those of the last seven years, Martin said, with 18.7 percent minority and 45.5 percent female. The anniversary comes at a time when affirmative action programs are under attack across the country. While much progress has been made, speakers said there is still a long way to go.
Improvement is needed in the recruitment of minority faculty and staff.
In addition, insensitivity and subtle forms of racism still exist. Rudenstine highlighted how much progress has been made at Harvard. Today more than a third of Harvard undergraduates come from various minority groups, as do more than a quarter of all degree students across the university. Martin recited examples of intolerance from the past and the present, highlighting how minority students are still snubbed, ignored, and discriminated against, even by Medical School faculty. Martin outlined several initiatives to increase diversity at the school and to increase contact with the community.