TCF senior fellow Richard D. Kahlenberg will be participating in a symposium at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on January 24, 2014 from 8:30AM to 5:00PM.

The University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Journal of Constitutional Law presents its annual Symposium, Educational Equality and the Constitution in the Twenty-First Century. The Journal invites lawyers, scholars, JCL alumni, students (both graduate and undergraduate), and other interested parties to attend. 

Kahlenberg's panel, “Do Economic Preferences Represent the Future of Affirmative Action?,”  begins at 3:30PM  and will cover the following:

Fisher v. University of Texas puts new pressure on universities to employ race-neutral strategies — such as class-based affirmative action — before institutions resort to racial preferences.  How well do plans that provide a leg up to economically disadvantaged  students of all races function in promoting racial, ethnic, and economic diversity?

Are there sufficient numbers of high-achieving low-income students who can succeed at selective institutions? How can economic disadvantage be defined in order to maximize racial diversity? Are such plans legally and politically viable?

The Symposium will consist of four panels, lunch with the panelists, and a reception to follow the event.