A recently released study on discrimination against women faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provides powerful ammunition in support of affirmative action in academia. The MIT study comes at a critical juncture in the debate over diversity in education. There is a well-funded conservative crusade under way to erase affirmative action programs at colleges and universities across the country. Public universities in California and Texas have already succumbed to this crusade, resulting in a dramatic reduction in minority students at both the University of Texas and University of California campuses. Critics of affirmative action argue that racial and gender discrimination no longer exists and therefore special programs to combat it are unnecessary. What the MIT self-study demonstrates is that even when motivations are good, unconscious biases and assumptions, longstanding unreviewed practices and informal "old boys" networks contribute to a damaging pattern of discrimination that might not be visible at first glance.