In the last week, it's come to light that the Princeton Tory received a grant from the University's Bildner Fund for Diversity to help bring conservative Washington Post columnist George Will GS '68 to campus.
To say it strikes us as somewhat ironic that campus' leading conservative voice, which often condemns University diversity programs, is now the beneficiary of those programs would be to put it mildly. Nevertheless, we're glad they got the money.
According to its website, the fund seeks to support events that create "meaningful enquiry, interaction and learning around ethnic, racial, religious and/or other differences."
Fleurette King, who is in charge of running the fund, said that the fund doesn't have a fixed criterion for sponsorship but instead aims to "promote intergroup dialogue."
Students can criticize the opinions of the Tory all they want, but the magazine used the Bildner fund for exactly what they think a diversity fund ought to be: a fund that promotes a diversity of ideas. The fund gave the money to help bring Will to campus and in doing so brought a different voice to the campus discourse.
Whether the Tory's view of the value of diversity is too narrow is beside the point: Their ideas, though objectionable to many, do create an intellectual diversity on our campus.
As Evan Baehr, former editor of the Tory and president of the College Republicans, said,"Diversity efforts should focus on bringing about an exchange of ideas and giving time to opinions that are not normally heard." Baehr presents a reasonable — if arguable — take on what diversity is all about.
In giving the grant to the Tory, the Bildner fund did what it was created to do: support diversity. Perhaps now the Tory won't be so quick to criticize campus diversity initiatives.
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