Book Review: Promise and Dilemma: Perspectives on Racial Diversity and Higher Education

Promise and Dilemma: Perspectives on Racial Diversity and Higher Education by Eugene Y. Lowe. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 1999, 206 pages. $29.95, Cloth, ISBN 0-691-00489-7. Reviewed by Clifford P. Harbour. In March 1996, the annual Princeton Conference on Higher Education was held on the campus of Princeton University. Sponsored by Princeton and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the conference focused on several challenges facing American colleges and universities at the close of the twentieth century. Presenters addressed issues of racial diversity and affirmative action in student admissions at two conference sessions. Three years later, Princeton University Press published a collection of some of their papers in Promise and Dilemma: Perspectives on Racial Diversity and Higher Education, a 206-page volume edited by Eugene Y. Lowe. Lowe's anthology includes articles on race-based affirmative action in student admissions, diversity, and the promotion of high academic achievement by non-Asian minorities. Considered collectively, the articles in Promise and Dilemma describe an antinomy in contemporary higher education as institutions struggle to reconcile their more recent commitment to the social values of diversity and pluralism with their longstanding commitment to individualistically oriented values of merit and fairness. Although Lowe's stated purpose is to examine the current status of affirmative action and diversity in selective higher education, the articles have significant implications for community colleges. The opening article by Lowe briefly summarizes the history of affirmative action and racial diversity at selective higher education institutions. It also introduces articles by L. Scott Miller, Neil Smelser, Chang-Lin Tien, and others. Lowe observes that traditionally American colleges and universities have been concerned with providing students an education that will enhance their lives and the well-being of their communities. The promise of selective higher education, simply stated, was this: Students who gained admission and worked hard to complete their studies could reach the earthly and secular promised land-material success and intellectual enlightenment. (The Biblical analogy is quite intentional for Lowe, an Episcopal priest and religion scholar.) Of course, many Americans could not reach the promised land because they were not welcome in higher education. According to Lowe, the unequal distribution of educational opportunities in the past now presents institutions with a dilemma. Colleges and universities are "inextricably bound up in the history that roots them, while, at the same time, they seek to transform individuals and serve their host communities" (p. 7). This dilemma was apparent, Lowe observed, in the 1978 United States Supreme Court case, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, and the 1996 Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Hopwood v. State of Texas. Each of these court cases offered evidence that a commitment to individualistic values like fairness and merit in the student admissions process could not easily accommodate a commitment to social values like diversity and pluralism. In Bakke racebased affirmative action was given tepid approval (Glazer, 1979; Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 1978). In Hopwood, it was flatly rejected (Hopwood v. State of Texas, 1996; Olivas, 1996). Lowe concludes his article with the assessment that, "progress towards inclusiveness has been impressive, but much hard work remains" (p. 41). According to Lowe, the hard work must begin with college and university presidents. These leaders must make diversity a real priority on campus. Once campus leaders demonstrate a clear commitment to this social value, institutions can begin to move beyond "the dilemma into a deeper appreciation-and belief about-the promise of diversity in our institutions of higher education and in our lives together" (p. …