randall kennedy is our guest on booktv. >> caller: hello, doctor kennedy. as one involved with discrimination and education, are you aware of anyone looking into the fact that all higher, from what i experienced, higher education, when you are accepted as astute it is not a contractual agreement? you can complete all requirements for a degree. the entire syllabus with a 4.0 average, have paid all your tuition, perhaps with government grants. and they can choose whether they feel like giving you your diploma or not. you may not get your diploma. you have no legal recourse. it was not a contractual agreement. so that students have no anti-discrimination protection for graduation and getting a diploma. therefore, they can't -- >> host: why do you ask that question? >> caller: because it happened to me. i could not go out and get a job in my field. and pay back my government loans. so that all these pop-up -- i would deliver a prominent university in philadelphia for a masters to become a teacher for a second career. and, you know, old white women are not -- >>

joining us now on our outdoor set is harvard professor randall kennedy, a frequent guest on booktv and on c-span. his most recent book which came out last year which is talking about, "for discrimination: race, affirmative action, and the law" professor kennedy, has a affirmative action been successful in this country? >> i think it's been very successful over the past several decades. it has helped with the desegregation of american life, particularly in higher education and in employment. and i think that it has done a very good job in a variety of ways. it is help to rectify past injustice. it is help to bring into important discussions, people have been excluded and, therefore, enriched or public debate and our learning in various schools. so i think it has been a success. that's certain what our gym about. >> host: where did you come up with the title? >> guest: it was the last thing that was part of this project. i did not have a working title. the book at to be published. i needed a title. and actually the person who came up with the title was my editor. i had come up with a cou