ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We have had a great deal of help from more people than we can name.
Tim Bartlett, our excellent editor at Basic Books, showed rare good will, talent, and patience under enormous time pressure. He greatly improved our writing and presentation, kept us focused on the big questions we sought to answer, made deft cuts, and did all the other things that great editors do.
Many of Tim’s colleagues at Basic Books worked hard and took risks to bring this book out in time for the Supreme Court’s oral arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas, and they have our heartfelt thanks. We are especially grateful to Lori Hobkirk of the Book Factory, who was unfailingly generous and supportive in working with us to accelerate the production process without sacrificing exactitude.
Two of Stuart’s colleagues from National Journal, Ryan Morris and Peter Bell, worked closely with us to capture important ideas from our text with imaginative and powerful graphics. Their ability to get inside key concepts in the book, and express them in new ways, fills us with awe.
Gay Jervey enriched both the book and our understanding by finding and interviewing—and skillfully drafting the stories of—dozens of African American and Hispanic former students and current college administrators and counselors who have experienced or witnessed harms done by racial preferences to intended beneficiaries.
Special thanks also to Professor Phillip Richards, Arnold Sio Chair of Diversity and Community, Department of English, Colgate University, who spoke with us for hours, shared his insightful book manuscript about harms done by racial preferences to black students, and allowed us to quote portions of it.
Peter Schuck and Vik Amar, who kindly agreed to be peer reviewers, spent many hours reading a rougher-than-ragged early draft and gave us invaluable advice. Peter’s important work on race and Ameican social policy helped shape many of our views, and his conversations with both of us over the years helped us test our evolving ideas. Vik, although a critic of the mismatch theory, has steadfastly and substantively supported efforts to bring out better data for testing the theory; his unwavering intellectual integrity made his voice and thoughts very valuable to us.
We were also very fortunate that six other distinguished thinkers—Henry Aaron, Gerard Alexander, Roger Clegg, KC Johnson, Alan Morrison, and Rick Nagel—kindly offered to read and comment on our draft manuscript. Each gave us extremely helpful insights.
Stuart’s agent, Gail Ross, did a wonderful job of interesting several leading publishers in our book proposal and helping us see why Tim Bartlett and Basic Books was the best choice for our project.
Stuart conducted wide-ranging interviews as part of his research for this book. Among those who gave him (and in some cases Gay) generous helpings of time, insights and good will are: Vik Amar, Sheri Anis, Peter Arcidiacono, Ryan Atkins, Chris Bishof, Esther Cepeda, Linda Chavez, Jesse Choper, Roger Clegg, Ward Connerly, Brian Corpening, Glynn Custred, Rog Elliott, John Ellis, Charles Geshekter, Jareau Hall, Erik Hanushek, Joe Hicks, Gary Hull, Dr. William Hunter, Ibby Jeppson, Jocelyn Ladner-Mathis, Rick Nagel, Suney Park, Peter Schuck, Arnie Steinberg, Carol Swain, Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, Tom Wood, and numerous African American veterans of the preference system and administrators who chose to remain anonymous.
The Brookings Institution, with contributions from Roger Hertog and Harlan Crow, generously assisted Stuart’s work.
Above all, Stuart thanks Sally, Sarah, and Molly.
For Rick, this book arises from more than a decade of research, much of it carried on under challenging conditions. He has been blessed from the start with some remarkable help. Patrick Anderson, now a distinguished attorney at Munger, Tolles in Los Angeles, worked with Rick full-time for a year before starting law school, and was the intended coauthor of a stillborn, early version of this book. Jane Yakowitz, now a law professor at the University of Arizona and a leading scholar in the field of privacy law, worked closely with Rick for three years to develop many of the databases used in this book and helped to galvanize a community of scholars to engage in the study and evaluation of many issues we explore here. Any professor would be lucky to have one right-hand associate of the caliber of either Patrick or Jane during his career. To have had two such people dedicate themselves to this body of work was, for Rick, incredible good fortune.
Rick’s work benefited from many other exceptionally able research assistants. Many of them came from social science programs at UCLA: Jennifer Flashman (sociology), Bongoh Kye (sociology), Margot Jackson (sociology), Yana Kucheva (sociology), Marc Luppino (economics), Greg Midgette (policy), Juan Pantano (economics), Flori So (political science), and Robert Sockloskie (psychology), all made invaluable contributions. Many law students at UCLA did original, creative work with Rick in seminars, or did careful, helpful work for him over various summers, including David Burke, Matthew Butterick, Carol Chao, Christian Dubois, Michael Jussaume, John Kohler, Mark Metzge, Mike Minnick, Matthew Moore, Matthew Morris, Drew Patterson, Jon Raney, Lucas Ryono, and Allison Woods. Ben Backes, Will Harper, and Sarah Lowe each provided valuable help en route to graduate work at other universities.
Doug Williams, the Wilson Professor of Economics at Sewanee, the University of the South, has been Rick’s closest professional collaborator for a generation, and he played an instrumental role in helping to translate Rick’s intuitions about the mismatch effect into rigorous tests, and in evaluating critics of law school mismatch. Many other colleagues around the country shared research, data, and ideas about racial preferences and student outcomes, and helped this book in a variety of ways, including Kate Antonovics, Peter Arcidiacono, Esteban Aucejo, Bernard Black, Roger Bolus, Roger Clegg, Tom Espenshade,Tim Groseclose, Stacy Hawkins, William Henderson, Gail Heriot, Joe Hotz, Richard Kahlenberg, Stephen Klein, David Leonhardt, Jim Lindgren, Adam Liptak, Terry Pell, Rick Peltz, Dan Polsby, Tom Sowell, Rob Steinbuch, Steve and Abby Thernstrom, and Bob Zelnick.
UCLA Law School has provided Rick with a wonderful environment for conducting scholarship, and is especially supportive of interdisciplinary research. June Kim of the Darling Law Library has provided invaluable help both in her own research and in training some of Rick’s research assistants. Daisy Ding expertly and patiently generated over a dozen early versions of the manuscript, and Tal Greitzer brought his formidable knowledge and patient support far beyond the call of duty to all facets of document production. Many of Rick’s colleagues have generously shared ideas, wisdom and criticism on his evolving work on racial preferences, including Alison Anderson, Paul Bergman, Joe Doherty, Mark Grady, Russell Korobkin, Jerry Lopez, Dan Lowenstein, Bill McGovern, Steve Munzer, Jonathan Varat, Eugene Volokh, Adam Winkler, Jonathan Zasloff, and Eric Zolt.
Rick received generous research funding from the Searle Freedom Trust, the Randolph Foundation, the UCLA Academic Senate, and the Dean’s Fund at UCLA Law School. Early phases of his work on student outcomes were aided by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Law School Admissions Council, the National Association of Law Placement, the Soros Fund, and the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
Kim Dennis and Jim Reische played unique roles in fostering this book, in ways they each well understand.
As described in Chapter Fifteen, the effort to secure crucial data from the California Bar turned into one of the most important and revealing episodes in the story of the mismatch effect, and will likely be resolved by the California Supreme Court within the next few months. Regardless of how that case turns out, Rick can never adequately express his gratitude to the many people who donated their expertise, time and commitment to the causes of transparency and letting the data speak. James Chadwick has been unique and extraordinary in his dedication, but many others also provided invaluable help: Vik Amar, Sharon Browne, Guylyn Cummins, Evgenia Fkiaras, Bill Henderson, Gail Heriot, Joe Hicks, Jean-Paul Jassy, Gerald Reynolds, Peter Scheer, David Snyder, Josh Thompson, and Jane Yakowitz.
My wife, astrophysicist Fiona Harrison, has inspired and improved my work in countless ways, some of which she knows well and others she barely suspects. She has been unfailingly patient and supportive throughout this project. My son, Robert, has always helped me think about the evolution of social mores in America, and increasingly shares with me a fascination with economics and empiricism. My daughter, Joanna, has shown great forbearance during “the book project” and is counting on soon having her father back.
We alone, of course, remain responsible for any and all flaws that remain.
—Rick Sander
Los Angeles, CA
—Stuart Taylor
Washington, DC