Duke professor visits A&M to discuss fair admissions in higher education

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - A professor from Duke University is visiting Texas A&M University’s Private Enterprise Research Center (PERC).

Peter Arcidiacono is an economist who has done research in a number of areas including affirmative action in higher education.

His expertise in this field led to him being hired as one of the expert witnesses for the plaintiffs in two lawsuits currently before the U.S. Supreme Court: Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina.

Currently, they’re waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court.

Arcidiacono says through working on these cases he’s gotten to see how schools like Harvard actually make admissions decisions and what criteria are important to them. He says typically, there’s not a lot of transparency on admissions data, but this isn’t the case for all universities.

“Texas-the whole state of Texas-is better about giving people access to their data, compared to some of these elite private schools in particular,” Arcidiacono explained.

He says public institutions like Texas A&M tend to have more accountability when it comes to sharing admissions data.

Thursday evening, Arcidiacono spoke at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library about the Supreme Court case against Harvard he worked on.

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