Yes, according to the Harvard Gazette, which recently published an article, “Students call ensuring diversity on campus vital.”
Writing on PowerLine, however, Paul Mirengoff isn’t too impressed. He notes that the piece is based on nothing more than the opinions of nine students. He notes also that the views presented are just clichés and non sequiturs. You’d think that Harvard students could have at least come up with something mildly persuasive.
In an affirmative-action case involving UNC, which was decided in favor of the university last fall, UNC defended its use of racial preferences by claiming that its admissions policy produces “educational benefits.” The evidence for that was similar to the Harvard Gazette piece: nothing more than quotes from some students who said that campus diversity helped make them better people, more able to “relate” to others from different backgrounds. Universities that have embraced racial preferences will always be able to find some current and former students who will say, as good “progressives,” that the diversity brought about by racial preferences was good — was “educational.”
Let us hope that when the Supreme Court hears the two cases, the justices insist on more than such claims, and also consider the damage that’s done by admitting some students just because of their ancestry.