Supporters of racially based admissions quotas on college campuses across the country have been touting purported academic benefits of diversity. Scott Greer of the Daily Caller scrutinizes their claims.
The more major problem with the study comes with the implication that severely undermines of the positive nature of the study’s findings. The researchers say the reason why the homogeneous groups failed to solve issues correct was due to the participants’ willingness to believe their peers — rightly or wrongly. The participants in the diverse groups were less likely to believe each other’s assertions and more likely to engage in “cognitive friction.”
Now this may be good when trying to resolve price bubbles, but it’s probably not ideal for the kind of harmonious community universities strive for.
Inadvertently, the study gives some support to the renowned Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam’s startling research that diversity leads to a serious decline in social trust in a given community. According to Putnam, people distrust one another and are more likely to engage in conflict — both between and within the respective ethnic groups — when they live in areas with high levels of diversity.
And we’re seeing this kind of social disharmony on our college campuses right now. All throughout the country, campuses have become embroiled in protests that have disrupted university life and divided students along racial lines. The calling card behind all these demonstrations is the desire to expand and reinforce diversity at a given university. …
… What’s causing this unrest is the very thing these aggrieved students want more of: the diversity obsession. Deans, administrators and judges like Sandra Day O’Connor believe that schools inherently benefit when they base admission policies on attaining the highest level of diversity among its students rather than the highest level of quality.
Instead of enhancing the educational environment, it leads to insane student demands, costly multicultural initiatives and the curtailing of free speech. In other words, it reduces the educational quality of a campus.
If your professor is afraid to teach a sensitive subject out of fear that he might incite a protest or a well-respected intellectual is disinvited from speaking on campus because his words might offend someone, you’re not getting the most out of your college education.
The diversity obsession leads to a racial fixation that prizes students and teachers primarily on the color of their skin rather than their academic merit. No wonder why campus protesters feel like they can demand racial power at the expense of the student body as a whole.
It’s also no wonder that these activists want more academic assistance to keep some of their peers from falling behind. Affirmative action has led to this kind of academic mismatch that serves no benefit to the student or to the institution.
