Defenders of Harvard tout strange ‘diversity’

HARVARD University is fighting a lawsuit that accuses the school of discriminating against Asian Americans in admissions. College organizations across the country are rallying to Harvard’s defense. The arguments they offer are as half-baked as one would expect.

Harvard is facing scrutiny because Asian Americans have represented around 17 percent of students for most of a quarter-century despite strong growth among the general population and typically high academic achievement. At a comparable California university using a color-blind admissions process, Asian Americans represent more than 40 percent of students.

Harvard has countered that its admissions process considers factors other than academic achievement, and Asian students rank lowest in a (highly subjective) “personal” category covering traits such as likability and “attractive to be with.”

Now 37 higher education groups, led by the American Council on Education, have filed a brief defending Harvard. They proclaim “a diverse student body is essential” to college education and “holistic review” allows “consideration of race in admissions” but “reduces no one to his or her race.” The groups also claim there are “no workable race-neutral alternatives” to produce student diversity.

So college officials don’t want to reduce students to their race, but just can’t bring themselves to handle admission without explicitly categorizing students by race at some point.

The groups argue Harvard doesn’t use explicit racial quotas, but instead “considers race flexibly.” This implies the fact that Asian students have reportedly never represented more than 21 percent of Harvard students in the past two-plus decades, just as would happen if hard racial quotas were in place, is one of history’s most astounding coincidences.

The brief declares, “Studies show that in-class diversity significantly enhances students’ abilities both to problem-solve and to work on group projects.” Funny how job-hunting college graduates continue to stress their degree, grade point average, academic achievements and work experience on their resumes when writing “I sat next to a minority student in Accounting” would better signal problem-solving prowess.

The brief even claims academic benefit from student diversity in dormitories and dining halls and suggests student interactions have comparable educational value to classroom instruction. “When a peer” presents new information “it is absorbed differently and more fully than if it had been presented in a lecture,” the brief says.

Given these arguments, it’s worth noting what kind of “diversity” Harvard has achieved. The New York Times reports 67 percent of Harvard students come from families in the top 20 percent of earners, and 15 percent come from the top 1 percent. Just 4.5 percent are from families with income in the bottom 20 percent.

In short, Harvard students almost always encounter other students from the same socio-economic background. It’s the kind of “diversity” where everyone is almost the same.

While Harvard provides superior academics, attendance also opens doors to society’s economic elite. Asian-American students with top-notch academic credentials are justified in resenting any process that artificially limits their access to such opportunity.