Maddenation
Michigan Essay
The University of Michigan, fresh out of Supreme Court, where it lost the battle to preserve its old admissions policy, has inserted an essay on divirsity into its new application to replace its old practice of awarding of 20 bonus points to minority applicants. Students will be asked to write 250 words on how they can contribute to a “diverse educational community” or how they have been affected by “cultural diversity.”
Here’s my essay.
Diversity has been touted in recent years as an a priori benefit to any organization. I think this benefit has been vastly oversold. Yes, we live in a diverse world, but this worldly diversity is not helping us. It is killing us. I don’t mean that new approaches to problem solving that emerge from different cultures are not valuable or even critical to our well being. I only suggest that homogeneous societies may have certain advantages over diverse ones when it comes to such factors as cooperation and tolerance. Differences may be helpful in opening minds to creative solutions to knotty problems, but these same differences are as likely to cause fights and bloodshed. Unlike most organizations, universities appear not to be as concerned about finding people who “fit in” as they are about finding those who don’t. Then they promote the establishment of ethnic organizations on campus to celebrate the individuality of minorities and facilitate their isolation. That may make sense for the football team and their “fighting spirit” but where’s the benefit to the university at large? Well, OK, you might benefit by taking in a few more pentagenerians like myself. And sexagenerians too. And don’t I deserve a few extra points for not using up the whole 250 words?
Dad • News • 08/29/03 • 2 comments
Comments
Dan • 09/09/03 • 1:15 PM:yeah. my good buddy matt feucht (the guy who got degrees in philosophy and theology at ND and is now a freshman at airforce doing engineering) and i have debated/discussed this diversity issue. it pretty much ended up with me not understanding the “importance of diversity!!!” in an online guestbook for a pro-affirmative action campaign i did for school, feucht wrote in that he did not know of any illiterate people at ND, so we should get some of those. he had not seen any 90+ year old people either, so that should take some priority.
so what exactly is the goal of diversity? why is it so damn important? what are its limits? um, maybe i’ll answer these things. but i’m only 23. for now i just ask and get confused and forget things.
Robert A. • 03/03/04 • 3:53 PM:Rats, if I didn’t already have a degree from elsewhere, I would apply to Michigan and tell them this: Several years ago, I was accused of being a “white old boy” by a black man who went to his daddy’s private college (daddy was a Ph.D.) in the same department, then went to dad’s graduate school (U. of M.). My parents, as it turns out, were school dropouts.
But I don’t think the would understand the educational benefits of my diverse perspective, because people like me haven’t reached critical mass.
On a more humorous note, check out the satire of U.M.’s diversity policy at my URL.
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