October 6, 1987
President Dunn defines Smith’s position on Affirmative Action
President Dunn made a statement about Affirmative Action and Smith College’s shifting policies in conjunction with the lecture “The Rationale for Affirmative Action.” Smith College had already been following Equal Employment Opportunity (E.E.O.) policies, meaning that it aimed to be non-discriminatory in its hiring processes. However, putting Affirmative Action (A.A.) policies into place would require explicitly encouraging people from minority groups to apply for Smith College job positions. According to President Dunn, Affirmative Action policies were to be slowly integrated into the College’s existing Equal Employment Opportunity policies. As she remarked, “Affirmative Action requires that you design employment goals, not quotas, but goals. Instead of having good intentions, we will now have concrete goals.”
The full Sophian article on President Dunn’s statement and the lecture can be found here.
[Last updated on October 31, 2018]