A week ago Friday, the New York Times featured a front-page story on a challenge that could end up ending affirmative action once and for all at the most prominent university in the United States, Harvard.  Ron Unz, an alumnus, decided to use the university’s own system of alumni voting (there are currently 320,00 living holders of Harvard degrees eligible to vote) for the Board of Overseers to propose a slate of candidates pledged to end all preferences – racial, alumni, athletic – in the admissions process and go to pure meritocracy.  The candidates would also pledge to end tuition entirely at Harvard, using its vast endowment instead, so as to make payment – and especially debt -- not a consideration. If this strikes you as fanciful, check this out: The Times account is worth reading, but on Ron’s own website, The Unz Review, you can find a lot more. The genesis of the project: Earlier this year the New York Times had solicited...(Read Full Post)