A different form of diversity

It is highly appropriate that President Bush's condemnation of race-based university admission policies fell on Jan. 15, the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. By taking a stand against racial preferences, the President acted in the spirit of Dr. King, who famously hoped for the day when his children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

By contrast, those who support racial preferences and race-based policies have positioned themselves in opposition to Dr. King's vision of a colorblind society. Ironically, such individuals tend to believe their views are actually consistent with Dr. King's vision and will lead to a fairer and more equitable America. However, they are mistaken, for further discrimination merely creates new injustices rather than remedying old ones. Indeed, the President remarked that "as we work to address the wrong of racial prejudice, we must not use means that create another wrong, and thus perpetuate our divisions." I couldn't have said it better myself.

While the President's statement singled out the University of Michigan specifically, race-based admission policies are much more widespread. However, they have not gone unchallenged before. Examples include the famous 1978 Bakke case as well as the efforts of Ward Connerly, a Regent of the University of California and author of "Creating Equal: My Fight Against Racial Preferences."

As the President also suggested, we must carefully distinguish between genuine diversity (such as of worldview and life experiences) and superficial diversity (such as of ethnicity and skin color). The two are not equivalent. It is the former, not the latter, that university admission policies should seek to further. However, instead of doing so directly, many admission policies erroneously regard race and ethnicity as proxies for worldview and life experience, which they are not.

Universities need to get their priorities straight. Instead of working to promote superficial diversity, they should seek genuine diversity. A start would be to end the political litmus tests that are used to screen candidates for faculty teaching and research positions. No one can deny that the left end of the political spectrum is disproportionately overrepresented among university faculties around the country — including that of Princeton. This lack of intellectual diversity has gone unchecked for far too long and must be done away with, for it is only through a fair and balanced weighting of different viewpoints that the truth emerges. As in capitalist and Darwinian systems, ideas are only improved through continuous, healthy exposure to the competition. Instead of suppressing dissent, those who genuinely hunger for the truth should seek to expose their ideas to scrutiny whenever possible. Universities do themselves and their students a disservice by restricting the types of viewpoints that are presented in their classrooms.

At Princeton, the lack of intellectual diversity among student groups and the student body in general is equally appalling. Though I do not agree with everything written by contributors to conservative student publications, I deplore their relative scarcity on campus. The lack of intellectual diversity on campus is also reflected in the typically negative response to conservative-leaning writers. One need only write an article in opposition to reparations for slavery or in support of boutique medicine to draw the collective ire of the predominantly left-leaning Princeton student body. Or perhaps I should say "left-leaning student Borg," for sometimes it seems as though "resistance is futile."

Having made these statements, note that I am not calling for universites to hire disproportionately right-wing faculties or to unfairly favor conservative-leaning student groups; such a situation would be equally unacceptable.

The goals I have laid out here are not unattainable, but I don't see changes happening anytime soon. I will sprout wings and a tail before universities begin affirmative action programs for underrepresented conservative applicants. Eric Harkleroad is a physics major from Overland Park, Kan. He can be reached at eharkler@princeton.edu.