Diversity Yes, Preferences No

Abstract

That is the (unsurprising) finding of a recent survey by the widely respected pollster John Zogby. While 84 percent of college students said ethnic diversity on their campus was important, 77 percent expressed opposition to giving preferences to minority students in the admissions process. Roughly the same percentage (79) labeled lowering entrance requirements for students, regardless of the reason, as unfair to the entire student body. Moreover, a majority of students don't much like the intellectual orthodoxy on diversity and other matters to which they are expected to conform. In the Zogby poll, 55 percent complained that political correctness sometimes restricts what people say and learn, and a slightly larger percentage experienced too much politics in the classroom and colleges. They asked for more objectivity and intellectual freedom.