President Alger visits WRTC 301 and discusses "language, law, and ethics" in action

JMU President Jonathan Alger visited Karen McDonnell’s final WRTC 301 (“Language, Law, and Ethics”) class session to discuss his participation in a key moment in American legal (and educational) history. McDonnell, who serves as Faculty Senate Marshal, invited President Alger to talk about affirmative action and diversity, as he played an instrumental role in two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases involving the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policies (Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, 2003). 

 In facilitating class discussion, President Alger moved deftly through over 50 years of legal history – from Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (2013 & 2016) – and challenged students to think about the ways in which we measure “merit” and the importance of understanding how and why diversity is a “compelling interest” in higher education. He also shared fascinating insights from his rich career path, particularly his work with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, as well as memorable anecdotes about current and former Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas.