Last week the Washington Post ran a silly op-ed by Columbia University president Lee Bollinger regarding Fisher v. University of Texas and why the Supreme Court should not hear the case. Here is my (alas, unpublished) letter to the editor in response:
The theme of Lee C. Bollinger’s January 16 op-ed, “College diversity at risk,” is that universities are “unifying social institutions” and, therefore, should be allowed by federal courts — indeed, “encourage[d]” by federal executive-branch guidance — to consider race and ethnicity in deciding who is admitted and who isn’t. I repeat: Mr. Bollinger believes that to sort students by their skin color and what country their ancestors came from, and to treat some better and others worse based on which race/ethnicity box they check, will help “unify the country” and “overcome divisiveness” and “serve [a] unifying function” and help us “learn what we have in common” and “unify[] and elevat[e] U.S. society” and “fulfill our founding ideals of equal opportunity.”
The only possible explanation for this op-ed is the fact that Mr. Bollinger is the president of Columbia University and has spent his entire career in academia, showing that there are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual can believe them.
Sincerely,
Roger Clegg, Center for Equal Opportunity
The diversity crowd drives me crazy. I have been through the college application process with my two kids. They send the schools their transcripts, extra-curricular activity information, test scores, essays, letters of recommendation, and counselor evaluations. But this isn't enough to ensure a sufficiently diverse and yet unified student body? Nope. In order to truly convey the deeper identity of a student, a box must be checked.
But which box? My kids are a mix of Polish (1/8), Norwegian (1/4), Syrian (1/4), English, German, etc... In other words, they are pure-bred American mutts. Mostly European stock, but there is that enticing 1/4 of middle-eastern blood. Should they have checked that box? Sadly, they might have enhanced their chances of admission to "elite" schools had they played the diversity card. And who knows what other scholarship opportunities might have opened up for them?
But we didn't check that box. We checked the "white" box. That was more honest. And they didn't want any part of a school that would only admit them based upon their skin color rather than upon their academic record.
But how many kids are being granted or denied admission based upon what box they check? Do kids with 25% "black" ancestry always check that box? Should they? Many Asian applicants decline to check any box, knowing that some top schools (I'm looking at you Cal Berkeley) penalize Asian applicants.
What a mess. Is this the America that our educational elites really want? Is this really a means of "unifying" society? I think not.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBollinger is a poster boy for everything that is wrong with the New Class and , more specifically, with Higher Credentialing/Higher Diploma-Milling (mistakenly known as Higher Education in the US).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI know one man, born in Africa, who wrestles with the idea of marking African American or having his kids do the same. He emigrated to the US as a child, went to college, served in the military...
The hitch? His family in Africa were descendents of English settlers. So while he has actually lived in Africa, and remembers what life was like there, he fears that someone might choose to deny the apps of his children because African American doesn't really refer to Africa, but to something else. Skin color? Descent from slavery? Membership in a consistently liberal and democrat voting group? Must be the latter, since skin color isn't measured and dark skinned immigrants with no family history of slavery get the same quota allowances.
I remember the ire that one member of the admissions board from my alma mater aroused when he suggested that the college wasn't well served by ethnic and racial checkoffs. He suggested that if the college really thought that it had a better student body and better alumni corps by parcelling out slots based on skin color that they should just send out paint chips and ask students to record which best matched.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse