ACTA's Must-Reads
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Homogeneous diversity
A three-day conference on "The Future of Diversity and Opportunity in Higher Education" comes to a close today at Rutgers University. A quick look at the program reveals panels on "racial/ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic under-participation in postsecondary education," "race, ethnicity and gender," "previously marginalized groups," "groups that were marginalized in the past" and "communities of color and low-income communities." Regrettably absent from the list was intellectual diversity.
As ACTA has long insisted, a healthy marketplace of ideas is one of the cornerstones of a sound education. Students must be exposed to a variety of viewpoints in and out the classroom so that they learn how to think, rather than simply what to think. No discussion of diversity on campus can afford to exclude the diversity of ideas. As the Association of American Colleges & Universities rightly noted in their statement on Academic Freedom: "In any education of quality, students encounter an abundance of intellectual diversity."
Happily, there are some shining examples of a commitment to intellectual diversity. Some universities, such as the University of Missouri System, the City University of New York, and the University System of Georgia, have heeded ACTA's call and addressed this issue. Trustees elsewhere should follow their example.
Posted by David Azerrad on December 05, 2008 at December 5, 2008 05:10 PM
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