Last week University president John T. Casteen, III announced the choice of William Harvey to be the University's Chief Diversity Officer. This comes as part of a plan to implement the proposals of the President's Commission on Diversity and Equity.
Broad abstract terms like "diversity" or "homeland security" often look very attractive on the drawing board, but it is an appearance which quickly falls away once feel-good abstraction has to be translated into concrete bureaucracy.
Harvey is currently vice president for the Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity. His job now is to promote diversity on Grounds, so it would be good to tie down what "diversity" means before Harvey begins his work.
In a telephone interview, Harvey confirmed his support for race based affirmative action programs, in line with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. At the same time, Harvey envisions a broader definition of diversity including people of all backgrounds and perspectives. While seeking to implement the latter goal, the University should avoid approaches that define diversity in the shallowest terms.
Administrators are right to want the University to be a diverse place. But they also show an unfortunate willingness to settle for the kind of diversity you can see with your eyes. It has somehow become generally accepted that what makes a university diverse is a conglomeration of things over which the student has no control: his or her race, geographic location, etc.
The reason why is because this sort of diversity is easy. It's easy for schools to keep numbers and make graphs -- and ultimately easier to gerrymander a pre-determined result and call it "diversity."
The obvious problem, though, is that none of these arbitrary categories used to measure "diversity" have anything to do with who a person is -- with what's in a person's mind. Group identity is easy to quantify, but not very relevant. A diverse student body is one with the widest possible range of skills, interests, passions and perspectives.
If we follow the logic of most diversity bureaucrats, Virginia would be one of the least diverse schools on earth, given that two-thirds of everyone here comes from the same state, with large numbers of those hailing from the same regions like Richmond and Northern Virginia. But as any student here can attest, Virginia is incredibly diverse. This is because the University is a superb academic institution where students can pursue any passion -- one that opens doors from the arts to engineering. Virginia's diversity is not the shallow kind that can be imposed from the top down -- it's true diversity that can only develop organically.
The goal of policy cannot be to engineer diversity. Policy cannot compel the student body to become more diverse any more than it could force students to become more creative. The only goal of diversity policy should be to remove obstacles, like financial barriers in admission, while the broader goal of a school should be to increase the quality and quantity of academic and extracurricular options so as to attract a diverse group of students.
There is only one possible form of affirmative action that could ensure greater minority enrollment without perpetuating antiquated and arbitrary racial categories -- economic. Poor students are less likely to have access to quality secondary schools and enjoy fewer of the inherent advantages of well-off students.
Poor students are also more likely to be minorities. If a goal of an affirmative action program is social justice, no one could argue that a student from a wealthy minority family should be admitted over a poor inner-city student of any race who manages to perform at the same level academically. Exclusively using conomic affirmative action would level the playing field for admission and increase the percentage of minorities without reverting to racism in order to achieve a multi-colored student body.
There is reason for hope that Harvey's appointment may mark a turning point in how this school views diversity.In the book "Grass Roots and Grass Ceilings" Harvey writes, "It is important to realize that there are compelling economic, political, social, and moral reasons for making the society less fixated with skin color." It may be a sign that Harvey will move Virginia away from the out dated skin-deep definition of diversity. A cynical skeptic might point out how this school's obsession with race is unlikely to go away under a new bureaucracy. But given that Harvey hasn't even started his job, I think it best to give him the benefit of the doubt, and wish him luck.
Herb Ladley is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at hlaldley@cavalierdaily.com.
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