Location: 155 Olin Hall

Abstract:

“Two landmark cases have challenged the University of Michigan’s admissions policies: one focused on its law school admissions, and the other its undergraduate. In Grutter v. Bollinger, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the law school by a vote of 5-4. However, in Gratz v. Bollinger, the Court reversed its decision by a vote of 6-3, in part due to the university’s undergraduate admissions policy of providing “points” for race/ethnicity. Therefore, the Court decided that race could be considered in admission’s decision, but could not be the deciding factor. Although this decision appears to support affirmative action efforts, it limits how race can be used to achieve diversity goals. As a result, some institutions either holistically evaluate admissions applications manually, or they simply exclude diversity as part of the admissions process.  To add to the controversy, anti-affirmative action groups have been threatening institutions that have race-based programs. Recently, it was announced that the Supreme Court would hear two new cases on affirmative action, addressing race in high school assignments. In an effort to address these issues, a software application called Applications Quest, was developed by Dr. Juan E. Gilbert.  Applications Quest adheres to the Supreme Court rulings and provides holistic review of applications.  This tool allows the use of race, ethnicity, gender or any other attributes to be considered in admissions, school assignments, employee hiring or any other application processing area.”

Bio:

Dr. Juan E. Gilbert is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department at Auburn University. He also directs the Human-Centered Computing (HCC) Lab. Dr. Gilbert has research projects in Spoken Language Systems, Advanced Learning Technologies, User Interfaces (Usability), Ethnocomputing (Culturally Relevant Computing) and Databases.  He has published more than 40 articles, given more than 60 talks, and obtained more than $6 million dollars in research funding in his six years at Auburn University.  Dr. Gilbert is a Senior Member of the IEEE Computer Society and the Editor for the new Broadening Participation in Computing Series in Computer for IEEE Computer Society.  He has been a participant in the National Academies Frontiers of Science and Engineering Symposium, which honors upcoming scholars. This year, Dr. Gilbert is the Chair of the  National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposia.  Dr. Gilbert was named one of the nation's top African-American Scholars by Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and was the recipient of the Black Engineer of the Year Special Recognition Award.  In that same year, Dr. Gilbert received the American Society for Engineering Education Minorities in Engineering Award.  At Auburn University, Dr. Gilbert has been honored with the Auburn University Alumni Engineering Council Junior Faculty Research Award, the Auburn University ACM Outstanding Faculty Member, the Auburn University Alumni Outstanding Minority Achievement Award and the Auburn University Outstanding Minority Service Award. Recently, Dr. Gilbert was honored with a mural painting in New York City by City Year New York, a non-profit organization that unites a diverse group of 17 to 24 year-old young people for a year of full-time, rigorous community service, leadership development, and civic engagement.”

If you would like to meet with Juan, or for more information, please contact Jennifer Wofford.

[handout] - [schedule]

9-11-06 Rosemary