The Burden of Excellence

This stirring memoir by the retired provost of Thurgood Marshall College at UCSD tells the story of his five-year struggle to establish a model college-preparatory public charter school for children from underrepresented backgrounds on the campus of a major state university. This effort was his response to the anti-affirmative action movement in California, which limited access by underserved minorities to higher education by statute in 1996, with the passage of Proposition 209. It is his h...