Diversity Is the Name of Their Desire

“Diversity,” we are oft told nowadays, is a higher-education desideratum. By this, our college administrators mean that the presence of numerous “underrepresented minorities”—chiefly blacks and Hispanics—enriches the educational experiences of college students.

Such folks, then, do not trumpet all kinds of “diversity.” Intellectual diversity, it seems, means very little to our ivory tower pals: Left-wing radical professors love dark faces, but don’t much care for such dark faces if their owners think like Alan Keyes or Clarence Thomas.

If you ask us, dear reader, it is a curious proposition that ethnic diversity, qua ethnic diversity, automatically aids the intellectual experiences of college kids. Certainly the powers-that-be at Howard University would agree with us—they don’t seem so keen on ethnic diversity, now do they?

And, to be sure, some of the most famous environments for intellectual achievement have been rather ethnically un-diverse. 5th century Athens, for example, wasn’t exactly a hotbed of racial diversity, and yet it wound up being home to some important advances. Ditto Renaissance Florence.

Ah, but these are the curiosities that surround the collegiate “diversity” movement. To which we, the crack young staff of “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly,” can add one more.

Recently, dear reader, one of our junior editors—let’s just call him “Chip”—perused the 2007 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” issue. We know, we know: It’s embarrassing even to admit that you have glanced at this sordid rag, which somehow has hoodwinked folks into believing that it is the end-all-be-all of higher education.

Still, a particular outcome in the U.S. News rankings struck “Chip” as illustrative. Among the ridiculous categories in which schools are rated—“Best Universities—Masters (By Region),” “Best Comprehensive Colleges—Bachelor’s (By Region)”—one finds “Racial Diversity.”

Naturally, since the presence of numerous races on campus is so wonderful and helpful, one would figure that the very best schools in the nation would do well in this category.

Well, according to good ole’ U.S. News, here are the “national universities” with the greatest racial diversity:

1) Rutgers—Newark
2) University of Houston
3) Nova Southeastern University
4) Polytechnic University
5) Univ. of California—Riverside
Well, congratulations, Rutgers: You’re clearly the best university in the United States of America. And, as we all expected, Nova Southeastern University isn’t far behind.

Now, admittedly many fancy-pants schools have reputations that far exceed their actual value. If you ask us, you can get a decent college education at most American universities—and you can get a lousy one anywhere. So we don’t buy into the notion that a school with a “designer name” is necessarily so fantastic.

But, if our college administrators are so sure about the cardinal virtues of racial diversity, why don’t they send more of their kids to Nova Southeastern University? After all, by their own criterion, it offers a better intellectual and social environment than Harvard.