Why are universities so obsessed with diversity?

[astatine]

We have attended several events organized by universities where they recruit high schoolers. Why do the speakers trip over themselves to demonstrate their institutions are the most diverse?

I expected they'd highlight their strengths in job placement, salaries of recent graduates, their links with industry, summer internships, academic quality, availability of scholarships, and such. While these were mentioned (sometimes not all), it was almost as an afterthought; the emphasis in words and pictures seemed unnaturally weighted towards the D word.

Given the global market, it's great for a kid to go to Europe or Asia on a 3 month internship and I'd love to see these schools arrange more of them; but shouldn't the school try to improve the quality of a physics class by bringing in more kids who are good at calculus than focus on how many states and religions they represent?

Why is "40% of our students are minority" more important than "40% of our kids get jobs of $60K+"?