Diversity, Not Diverse Enough

Choosing a college is a very stressful time in a youth’s life. Through our high school careers and even previously, we have been preached at to culminate an impressive array of extracurricular activities and academic success to ensure acceptance to the college of our choice. This, although, in many circumstances, proves untrue. It is an all too common occurrence to be rejected by a school, not on academic merit or supplemental skills, but rather because you do not meet the school’s requirement to fulfill their diverse student body. Recently, the Supreme Court has been juggling issues of giving ethnic students advantage over others merely due to race. The court’s ruling proves quite significant in American history for it has been American policy for decades that all persons shall have balanced opportunity and treated with equality. Basing admission on numerical terms with greater values granted to minorities is known as an attempt at affirmative action and is instilled to avoid discrimination. One scholar observes, “Many whites object that affirmative action simply reverses the target of discrimination -- that is, that blacks are favored for university admission simply because of their race, not always because they are qualified, and that whites are the victims.”1 Schools look to create a diverse environment of students, mainly for ridiculous reasons such as vanity. It is due to the ambiguity of the word “diversity” that many students are being rejected from schools for such unjust reasons. Diversity, as seen by many schools, means a multitude of cultures and ethnicities. This definition, although, does not incorporate all necessary components of diversity.

Diversity implies difference. Difference, in this case, is highly misconstrued. Contrary to what universities have developed as the meaning of difference, it actually incorporates a limitless amount of possibilities. People possess many different opinions, ideas, skills, and impressions. These differences must be examined in addition to the race difference, because they also help craft a diverse university. A school may have an assortment of culture, but if they all view ideas in the same, or similar, ways, then the idea of diversity is completely lost.

Something described as diverse possesses an aspect of variability. In no way does this description imply any sort of number or limit. It is thus that difficulty arises in a university’s definition of diversity. There is no concrete divinity as to the amount of ‘diversity’ each school much attain, and in what divisions. A college’s idea of diversity is therefore blurred and does not retain the notion of variability. Variability sets no net figures to be achieved. To ensure variability, a numerous amount of genres must be incorporated. This, in no way, implies the idea of a set number of members as to each group. It, as a result, provides unsurpassable difficulty for institutions to set boundaries on diversity.

Diversity illustrates a range; a vast amount of possibilities. Such a range incorporates anything and everything and still maintains it’s boundaries of diversity. To compile all possibilities as to this range is virtually impossible. Furthermore, it is unthinkable to fulfill each and every one of the nearly uncountable potential items. Achieving this unfathomable task is, in essence, exactly what universities are attempting. The span of possible diversities among eligible students stretches awesome distances, and the thought of filling each spot to create diversity is unattainable.

In a sense, defining a word requires one to set boundaries as to what the word incorporates and also what it does not. In this instance, it is quite the opposite, in that the term in question has been set into too many boundaries that its meaning has been cut significantly. Obviously, the idea of diversity easily includes the range of races and culture, yet the word cannot be limited to merely this definition. Schools have bound this misinterpreted word and utilized it unfairly. It’s meaning must be released and allowed to explore its full potential.

Setting a boundary on the possibility of diversity is not only seemingly impossible, but also a highly unjust way to regulate admission into a university, at its current definition. In order to make diversity an acceptable admission standard, the definition of the word must be altered to open the possibilities captured within it. Universities must abandon the notion that diversity is merely an ethnic idea, and impose the new and clearly more acceptable definition that it can include numerous possibilities. Among such possibilities are the wide range of talents a possible student could offer, their skills that may aid in the schools development and the betterment of its pupils, and any unique quality that will enhance and exhibit a school’s assemblage of exceptional students. The misuse of the word diversity is presently restricting two parties; the eligible student and the college itself. Not only are fully qualified and excellent students being refused on criteria out of their hands and to no fault of their own, but universities are missing wonderful opportunities. In today’s world, the youth of the nation advances everyday, and reaches new, exciting heights in the feats we are able to accomplish. Given the chance and the encouragement, the potential of America’s upcoming generations is limitless. To be refused the opportunity to develop and better one’s skills in a higher learning facility based on skin color or heritage is an unfathomable mistake being constantly made by numerous institutions. It is therefore essential to development that our misconstrued interpretation of the idea of diversity be fixed to include all options required to construct a desirable student body and resubmitted into admission standards.

Works Cited

1. Tully, Andrew F. “Top Court Holds Firm on Affirmative Action”. United States. Radio Free Europe. 21 September 2005. <http://www.rferl.org/features/2003/06/24062003153114.asp>