Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College et al

Filing 455

MOTION for Leave to File to Participate as Amici Curiae by Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association, Kuumba Singers of Harvard College, Fuerza Latina of Harvard, Native Americans At Harvard College, Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association, Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Women's Association, Harvard Asian American Brotherhood, Harvard Vietnamese Association, Harvard-Radcliffe Chinese Students Association, Harvard Korean Association, Harvard Japan Society, Harvard South Asian Association, Harvard Islamic Society, Task Force on Asian and Pacific American Studies at Harvard College, Harvard Phillips Brooks House Association, Harvard Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students, Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, First Generation Harvard Alumni, Native American Alumni of Harvard University, Harvard University Muslim Alumni, Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Amicus Brief by Harvard Student and Alumni Organizations in Support of Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, # 2 Exhibit Declaration, # 3 Exhibit Declaration, # 4 Exhibit Declaration, # 5 Exhibit Declaration, # 6 Exhibit Declaration, # 7 Exhibit Declaration, # 8 Exhibit Declaration, # 9 Exhibit Declaration, # 10 Exhibit Declaration, # 11 Exhibit Declaration, # 12 Exhibit Declaration, # 13 Exhibit Declaration, # 14 Exhibit Declaration, # 15 Exhibit Declaration, # 16 Exhibit Declaration, # 17 Exhibit Declaration)(Thayer, Kenneth)

EXHIBIT 7

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON DIVISION

STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC,
Plaintiff,
v.
PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF
HARVARD COLLEGE (HARVARD
CORPORATION),

Civil Action No. 1:14-cv-14176-ADB

Defendant.

DECLARATION OF MELISSA TRAN
(HARVARD VIETNAMESE ASSOCIATION)
Melissa Tran, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 1746, declares the following:
1.

My name is Melissa Tran. I am a rising senior at Harvard and expect to earn my

bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2019. I am writing this declaration
individually and on behalf of the Harvard Vietnamese Association (“HVA”) in support of the
consideration of race, as one of many factors, in Harvard’s admissions policy.
2.

I am a Co-President of the HVA. After consulting with HVA’s Board, I have been

given authority to submit this declaration on behalf of HVA. This declaration represents a
collection of different experiences shared with me by members of HVA.
3.

HVA is dedicated to promoting awareness of Vietnamese and Vietnamese-

American culture, history, and community on campus. HVA maintains a strong commitment to
building a warm community amongst its members.

4.

HVA was founded in the early 1990s, serving as an outlet for Vietnamese students

to socialize with one another and to learn more about Vietnamese culture. Since then, HVA has
continued to promote culture, community, and educational/political awareness at Harvard. It has
become a voice on campus for Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans and maintains a strong
dedication to the needs of the greater Boston and Vietnamese community.
5.

In areas of higher education, Southeast Asians, including Vietnamese students, are

not well represented, but are often grouped with other Asian students despite significant cultural
and socioeconomic differences. These differences have often resulted in HVA members feeling
isolated due to expectations that we have had similar opportunities as other Asian students, when
instead we come from a demographic with a distinctly lower educational and economic
background.
6.

Some members have also experienced stigma due to a perception by others that

people from Southeast Asian countries are poorer, less intelligent, and even more barbaric than
people from other Asian countries. We think that admissions policies should actually be more raceconscious in this regard, to understand how our Vietnamese history and heritage continue to affect
our lives in ways that other Asian groups are unaffected.
7.

Many of our HVA members come from families that lived through war-torn and

refugee conditions, and therefore lack connections or mentorship to know how to navigate through
networks of higher education. HVA provides a network and level of comfort for Vietnamese
students who come from similar backgrounds and can share feelings of uncertainty and alienation
in environments like Harvard. Having a Vietnamese community here helps us to know that we
belong at Harvard, when we might otherwise feel lost. However, HVA is a relatively small
organization due to the limited number of Vietnamese students, and we believe that prohibiting

race from admissions considerations would significantly harm our ability to create a cohesive
community and support our members.
8.

For some members’ families, coming to America was not just a choice of pursuing

a better life, but rather of trying to stay alive, which has come with repercussions, ranging from
trauma to prioritizing survival above all else. For others, they are still recovering from the lasting
economic and social damage of life in a country healing from conflict. Generations later, these
memories and experiences continue to shape the lives of our members, some of whom are the first
in their families and communities to enter an institution like Harvard. If not for race-conscious
admissions policies, we believe these struggles could never be properly understood.
9.

It is also important for us, HVA, to support race-conscious admissions because we

strongly believe in the value of racial diversity, which allows the opportunity to learn from people
from different backgrounds, such as Black, Latinx, and other Asian communities. We believe that
race is an important, rich part of the identity of many students, and that it is irreplaceable in the
pursuit of a diverse student body.
10.

Lastly, we stand firmly in support of other underrepresented groups that race-

conscious admissions policies seek to benefit. We believe that there are persistent, societal
inequalities on the basis of race that cannot be corrected for by looking only at other factors, and
that race-conscious admissions are necessary to close that gap. Other measures for admissions are
insufficient due to inherent biases and their inability to fully capture the difficulties faced by
marginalized groups.
11.

We believe that it is important for our voices to be heard in this discussion

pertaining to race-conscious admissions. As an Asian student group with members who also come

from underprivileged backgrounds, we believe we can offer a unique perspective on the positive
impact of race-conscious admissions policies on Harvard students.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Executed on this day, July 27, 2018

/s/ Melissa Tran
Melissa Tran