Inside Higher Ed has a story today about a community college in Wyoming where the new president was shocked by the lack of “diversity” (all those identical white people around!) and has undertaken to make the school more “diverse” by recruiting some foreign students. Naturally, we read that having more “diversity” improves the “value of the educational experience” for the white native-born students.

America abounds in unsubstantiated political beliefs like that. I would like to know what evidence, if any, supports the assertion that the white students at this school have an “educational experience” that is better than if there were no foreign students, “underrepresented minorities,” or other exotic specimens. Maybe it makes economic sense to recruit some Chinese or Indian students for a community college in Wyoming, but I doubt that this passes the cost/benefit test without resorting to airy, unproven intangibles. It’s an article of faith among “diversity” proponents that having a few “representatives” of The Other has a transformative impact on white students, but taxpayers should demand more than that when their money is being spent.