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+"?

[Leopard_Flower]

People that run the Universities are probably just trying to show that the color of your skin doesn't effect how you do in school so their trying to...shake it up a bit. They probably also don't want to appear racist.

[Ace Librarian]

I'd say that there a number of reasons:

1. We live in an increasingly diverse country. Today's students will be working a diverse work force, and universities feel their students should get used to dealing with people of different backgrounds.

2. Universities (especially the top schools) are sometimes accused of being elitist institutions. By publicizing how diverse the are they diffuse this criticism.

3. Many universities feel it is part of their mission to educate the under-privileged.

4. (This is more of a guess). Colleges are increasing concerned with statistics, and it is easier to keep track of how diverse the student population is than to check how much their graduates earn.

[Choice]

One reason to express the diversity of the school is to get more kids to apply. If they say that the school is diverse, kids who used to think that they couldn't get into the school because they didn't fit into the norm, now apply to the school, and some even get in!

[giantph]

I am 100% with you and I am Asian. This is one of those "political correctness" bs! They have to emphasize "diversity" or if else one person from a minority group complain that that they didn't mention enough about diversity, then they will be deemed racist and publicly humiliated by the media.

It's a sad reality right now. The color of your skin matters now more than ever before. What about social economic status of the students and their families? Like you said, colleges should emphasize important things but the fear of being called a racist is controlling their priorities.

[drpoop69]

I totally agree -- and I'm hispanic. It may be different in Canada than the US because in Canada race is not a big deal in admissions. In fact I don't believe it's asked on the application.

I don't believe in race based admissions. Students should be admitted based on their merits. Trying to reach a quota for a certain set of students would most definitely lead to a decrease in the standards of the school as the more qualified students may be denied entry in order to make way for minorities.

By the way, I am a hispanic female who is majoring in chemistry, I am going to grad school next year and my race has never been a subject of interest.

[Yungleen]

I guess it depends on how you view college. If you see it only as a step to your larger goal, then the most important things are what their graduates' salaries were and what kind of jobs could they get. If, however, you see college as part of your life experiences and something that helps you to become a more interesting person, then isn't diversity a great thing? Don't you want to learn from what other people have experienced in their life?