The Primary Source maintains that its carol "O Come All Ye Black Folk," a controversial song published in its Dec. 6 issue, was intended to be a candid satire of affirmative action at Tufts.
But according to the admissions team, led by Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin, the portrayal offered in the Source could not be further from the truth.
"No part of the carol is 'representative' of Tufts admission officers or any admission officers that I know at other colleges," Coffin said in an e-mail.
While he said that race does play a role in admission decisions, he said that such a policy is commonplace.
Tufts' "use of affirmative action in its admission practices is typical of the practices at any highly selective college and university," he said. "Race is one legitimate factor among many considerations in our admissions process."
Coffin said he was particularly offended by the suggestion that black students at Tufts are not academically qualified. The carol includes lyrics that refer to African Americans as "boisterous yet desirable," and that claim that African Americans will be accepted to the University regardless of their grades, "F's, D's, or G's."
"The carol's insinuation that admission officers blindly accept students with poor grades is as insulting to my colleagues in Bendetson Hall as it is to the African-American students on campus," he said.
According to Provost Jamshed Bharucha, every student is admitted on his or her own merits and each selection is "a very deliberate decision on the part of our admissions staff to bring into the community somebody who will add to the richness of the mix."
Bharucha stressed the need for diversity in an academic environment. "We take very seriously the importance of building a diverse class because that's critical to the educational experience of all of our students," he said.
These diverse students, he said, are all highly qualified and are drawn from a very selective pool. The response of the student body to the carol is evidence of the quality of the admissions choices, he said.
"The extraordinary way in which students stepped up following the carol publication really affirms in my mind that we're making some excellent admissions decisions," he said.
- Rob Silverblatt
