February 11, 2003

GRACE HOLT MEMORIAL LECTURE


The University of Illinois at Chicago
INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON RACE AND PUBLIC POLICY and the
BLACK HISTORY MONTH PLANNING COMMITTEE Presents

GRACE HOLT MEMORIAL LECTURE
3:00-5:00pm, TODAY, Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Cardinal Room, UIC Circle Center

"AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE Michigan Case and Beyond"

William T. Trent, Ph.D.
Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Sociology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract
Growing opposition to affirmative action policies in higher education has resulted in two landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court involving the University of Michigan -- Grutter v Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. The outcome of these cases could profoundly affect the numbers of African American, Latino, and Native American students admitted to UIC and other universities as well as their employment prospects. Debate on this case has grown even more intense as President Bush, the Center of Individual Rights, and a growing number of others seek to eliminate admission procedures that have provided students of color access to historically white universities since the 1960s. Dr. William Trent, who is a national expert on affirmative action in higher education, will lead a discussion on these landmark cases, growing opposition, supportive arguments, as well as potential implications for campus diversity and other pressing race and public policy efforts. Dr. Trent is the author of "Affirmative Action in Higher Education" and has published widely on affirmative action, educational inequality, equal opportunity and educational policy issues. He has also served as an expert witness on court appointed panels as well as on numerous national boards and committees.

Dr. Trent's Lecture will be followed by a brief commentary by five members of the UIC campus community and by questions from the audience:
Dr. Barbara Henley, UIC Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Dr. David Stovall, UIC Assistant Professor of Educational Policy and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy
Dr. Tyrone Forman, UIC Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Government and Public Affairs/Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy
Dr. Cedric Herring,UIC Professor of Sociology and Institute for Government and Public Affairs
Dr. Phillip J. Bowman,UIC Professor of African American Studies, Urban Planning and Policy and Director, Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy

Other UIC Co-Sponsors:
Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Blacks, Department of African American Studies