As reported today in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a new report by the National Association of College Admissions Counselors surveys how “diversity” is practiced in higher education today.
Most readers here will not be surprised by one of the report’s key findings: “[O]nly about a third of American colleges consider race or ethnicity as a factor in admissions decisions.” In other words, the “use of race as a factor in admission is far less frequent among institutions of higher education than the public might have suspected.”
That’s because, of course, only selective institutions find it necessary.
Still, a vast majority of colleges — 74 percent — pledge a commitment to diversity in their mission statement, and 74 percent said they use recruiting tools to try to attract a more diverse student body. The most frequently used tools reported were scholarships, college fairs, campus-visit programs, and visits to high schools.
Thus colleges that need not lower their admissions standards in order to recruit minorities use money as a minority recruiting “tool,” obviously “taking race into account” in the awarding of scholarships.
There is one other very interesting admission bit of information in the report.
“Most admission officers weigh a variety of factors, from socioeconomic group to age, religion, and special talents, when searching for a student who will be the right fit for a diverse entering class,” the report says. [Emphasis addes]
I have argued too many times to cite that the logic of “diversity” requires that religion be “taken into account” as well as race, that abandoning the principle of race-neutral colorblindness will logically compel abandoning the principle of non-discriminatory religious neutrality as well. I won’t cite all of my prior arguments on this, but see here. And if you’re still interested, here, here, and here.
