The student paper at UW-Whitewater has this piece on the diversity policy adopted by the UW Board of Regents.

The flabbergasting thing about this is the justification that some Wisconsin businesses were supposedly pushing the policy on the grounds that a “diverse student body” is “important in order for our students to compete in the global economy.” So said the president of the Board of Regents.

Businesses are easily mau-maued into saying silly things. Does anyone believe that they would turn thumbs down on good job applicants simply on the basis that the overall composition of the student body at the school they attended didn’t have enough “persons of color”? That is to say, if there aren’t enough “minority” Americans, that somehow keeps a young person from being able to compete globally? That makes no sense whatsoever. I’ve heard of presuming guilt by association; this amounts to presuming incompetence by nonassociation. If it’s true at all.

Would any business refuse to consider applicants from an all-black college on the grounds that they didn’t experience enough “diversity” in school?