Importance of Diversity on College Campuses

Ivy Coach salutes the president of Duke University for defending the importance of diversity on college campuses.

At at a time when the importance of diversity on college campuses is under fire across college campuses as the Trump administration prepares a legal attack against the practice of Affirmative Action, it’s nice to see prominent university presidents defend the practice of diversity — and champion its importance. Newly installed Duke University president Vincent Price (we like his glasses — he’s got style!) has done just that recently when he asserted how diversity prompts folks to think about new views of problems.

Duke President’s Response to Affirmative Action Challenge

As he is quoted in a piece in “The Charlotte Observer” by Emery P. Dalesio entitled “Duke Univ. president: Diversity forces new view of problems,” “I see no disjunction between our quest for diversity and our fundamental commitment to fairness in the way we manage all aspects of the university. I mean diversity in a deep way. That is to say, we are about open inquiry. That’s what universities are about. And the only way to produce high-quality, open inquiry is to go out and seek out difference and bring different points of view, different perspectives together, so they can be brought to bear on challenging problems.” Amen, Mr. Price. Amen.

A Call for More Presidents to Defend the Importance of Diversity on College Campuses

Duke University, historically, has not exactly had the greatest reputation when it comes to race relations. At no time was this more evident than a little over a decade ago when three white Duke lacrosse players were accused — falsely — of raping an African American woman. In a city, Durham, that is more than 40% African American, the campus became a tinderbox for a national discussion of race relations. So perhaps that makes it all the sweeter for it to be the president of Duke University, in the southern state of North Carolina, to speak out to affirm his university’s commitment to diversity. Here’s a call for more president — every president of every one of our nation’s leading institutions — to speak out against a challenge to the practice of Affirmative Action. Is Affirmative Action flawed? Yes. Do Asian Americans unjustly face discrimination in highly selective college admissions? Yes. Will ending Affirmative Action change that? No, not in the least. We at Ivy Coach have asserted as much again and again these last several days, weeks, and years.