[URBANTH-L]The Harvard Civil Rights Project -- expert feedback needed on school desegregation policies

[Angela Jancius]

Cross-posted from "COMM-URB" <COMURB_R21 at email.rutgers.edu>
Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2006 14:38:02 -0400

-----Original Message-----

Colleagues,
The Harvard Civil Rights Project has drafted a social science statement,
which will be appended to an amicus brief for the cases being argued before
the U.S. Supreme Court this fall regarding the future of voluntary school
desegregation policies.  They are asking that social scientists and
historians either at the professor, or researcher level (not students)
sign-on, and they will then file the brief on behalf of all who agree to
become signatories.  Could you please help us in circulating this to your
respective departments, and anyone else you think might be relevant in
academia. Also if there are organizations or other listservs you could
distribute this through, that would be great. The deadline is rather tight
they need all signatures of support by THURSDAY, OCT 5th (1pm EST)
-- the deadline has been extended, so please adhere to the new OCT 
5th date.

Please visit http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/sss/ for more information 
to learn more and to add your signature to the statement. Thanks for your 
assistance, we are looking to build a wide base of support, and we cannot 
tell you how instrumental your help could be.

While the Harvard Civil Rights Project has tried to be as thorough as
possible in compiling the names of social scientists and lawyers with
expertise on issues of desegregation, diversity, affirmative action, and
race relations in schools, they have undoubtedly missed many individuals who
would be interested.  For these reasons, they ask that you please forward
this information immediately to scholars and individuals whom you think may
be interested in adding their names to this list; otherwise, please do not
distribute this information.

Below is a letter with more information from Gary Orfield at the Harvard
Civil Rights Project:

Dear Colleague:

We've been working on a Social Science Statement with fellow researchers for
several months on the urgently important cases being argued before the U.S.
Supreme Court this fall regarding the future of voluntary school
desegregation policies.  The outcome of these cases may well affect
voluntary race-conscious policies in many arenas.  As you know, there is a
great deal at stake here, not only for K-12 education but, potentially, for
higher education as well.  At this time, we are inviting you to sign-on to
this social science statement, a draft of which is available at the
following link:
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/sss

This statement is the result of input from many social scientists familiar
with the relevant research. While there are many ways to present this
information and there are many issues that could be discussed, we chose
those that were most central to the case and where social science evidence
was both available and obviously relevant.  We have had contributions from a
number of the nation's leading scholars and reviewed it carefully.   If you
believe, however, that there is a serious error contained within the
statement or a crucial missing source, please let us know immediately at
crp at gse.harvard.edu.

This statement will be appended to an amicus brief that will be filed in the
cases.  We are also inviting you to sign-on to the brief. The brief will
simply address why the Court should consider the social science evidence
discussed in the statement and succinctly track the points made in the
statement within the legal framework of the case.  We will file the brief on
behalf of all scholars who agree to become signatories.

We need your response to these requests no later than Friday, September 29th
so that we can meet the deadline established by the U.S. Supreme Court. If
you agree to add your name to these critical documents, please email The
Civil Rights Project at crp at gse.harvard.edu.  In your email, please include:

1)         "I agree to sign the statement and the brief" in the subject line;
2)         The complete spelling of your name; and
3)         Your institutional affiliation

Your signature on the statement will include your institutional but not
departmental affiliation.  The brief will simply list the names of those
filing it.

While we have tried to be as thorough as possible in compiling the names of
social scientists with expertise on issues of desegregation, diversity,
affirmative action, and race relations in schools, we have undoubtedly
missed many individuals who would be interested.  For these reasons, we ask
that you please forward this information immediately to scholars who you
think may be interested in adding their names to this list, but do not
otherwise distribute it.  We wish to include younger scholars and to have
the widest geographic, institutional and racial diversity. We ask that you
please limit it to scholars who are social science and history faculty at
academic institutions or research centers.

If you have any questions, please email us at crp at gse.harvard.edu. We look
forward to hearing back from you no later than Friday, September 29th.  The
collaboration among scholars has been quite amazing and we hope to show the
nation that the research community has vital contributions to make.  We plan
to publicly release the names of the signers and the document itself when it
is filed in the Court on October 10 and you will be free to distribute it at
that time.  We hope that it will inform public discussions as well as
judicial debates and believe that it will be of great interest to many
students.

Thank you again for your consideration of this request.

Gary Orfield

Professor of Education & Social Policy
Harvard University
Director, Civil Rights Project
Gutman 442, 6 Appian Way
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-496-4824
Gary_Orfield at harvard.edu

Assistant: Jennifer Blatz
617-495-1898
blatzje at gse.harvard.edu