Bill Clinton: “Let me ask you--let me ask everybody--first of all, I'm glad you said that, because we're in the business of defining…”

“Let me ask you--let me ask everybody--first of all, I'm glad you said that, because we're in the business of defining stereotypes tonight, so that's good. I think all of us who have worked hard to get where we are are sort of proud of that. I mean, when I was a young man, I was the only person on my law school faculty that voted against our tenure policy because I never wanted anybody to guarantee me a job. I told them they could tell me to leave tomorrow, and I'd go. I mean, I really identify with what you've done. I'm proud of that. Suppose you're the president of the university. Would you like, other things being equal, to have a faculty that were not--that were reasonably racially diverse? And even more importantly, would you like, other things being equal, to have a student body that reflected the America these young people are going to live in once they've graduated? And if you believe that, and you didn't want to infuriate people like you've been infuriated and make them feel like you've felt, how would you go about achieving that? I think this is tough stuff. I don't pretend that my position is easy or totally defensible. How would you do it? [Mr. Rodriguez answered that matters should be addressed early on, in the first grade as opposed to graduate school. Mr. Rosenblatt agreed and suggested that setting goals was better than setting quotas.]”