Remember the flurry of activity during the summer over the University of Michigan “diversity” case? The writing and commentary on it had died down, but now it’s back. This issue just ain’t gonna go ‘way.
Peter Wood, author of a lovely book entitled Diversity: The Invention of a Concept, posts his thoughts about the use of “diversity essays” by applicants in order for universities to get just the right “critical mass” of “underrepresented” students. It occurs to me that these exercises can also be used to reward doltish non-minority students who want to affect a high degree of multicultural awareness to compensate for the fact that they have combined SAT scores down in the three digits. And will even the sharpest students risk not getting admitted to their top choice school because they refused to play the game? Will phony diversity essays become a big internet industry, just like phony term papers?
And Peter Kirsanow, a lawyer who sits on the US Civil Rights Commission contributes a thought-provoking article in which he contends that the University of Michigan is still not in compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision.
