Howard Advocates 'Respect for Equality'

Author: Chris Howard

One interesting thing about North American students in this generation is that we all seem to have watched the same television shows when we were children. And all of these shows tend to stress the same basic rules of conduct, particularly with respect to equality. Ask any five year old if it is fair that one person is favored over another in college admissions decisions because of some external factor like skin color, and he or she will certainly know the answer without batting an eyelash.
Why then is the issue of affirmative action such a hot topic? Amber Hillman's article (The Middlebury Campus, Feb. 26, 2003) has caused a lot of negative backlash. I am here to ponder why this article has offended so many people, and why, perhaps, it should not have done so.
In an e-mail forwarded to me by the Middlebury Asian Student Organization (MAS0) the words "opinion is one thing; implying that the only people who belong at Middlebury are those who are well-educated, highly-qualified 'majority' students is another" appeared. Did Hillman imply that? If she did, I certainly missed it. What I read was that, with affirmative action in place, a college applicant who is in the visible majority -- and here I am talking about skin color -- may have to work harder academically to be accepted than would an applicant who is in a visible minority, all other factors being equal. What this boils down to is that the goal of diversity on campus is more important than the goal of meritocracy in the admissions office. This is what Hillman was articulating, and somehow this has made her into a racist in the view of just about every student on campus.
These days, it is not fashionable to favor meritocracy over diversity. And why should it be? I came here because I preferred Middlebury's admissions process over the pure academic meritocracy system in my native country to the North, Canada. If it were not for the Middlebury admissions office seeking "diversity," why would they have cared about my four years crew experience, my position as yearbook editor or my Duke of Edinburgh's Award gold standing? I am glad that they considered these traits, which are as important to me as they are a part of me. Canadian universities judge applicants purely on the average percentage in the five top subjects taken in the senior year of high school, and that is why they will never be as good as American universities in terms of learning environment.
So I'm all for diversity, but here is where I part company with the supporters of race-based affirmative action: I have trouble stomaching the moral implications of giving somebody merit that is not based on something they have earned. I will not be convinced that being a member of an underrepresented minority adds the same kind of positive flavor to one's rÈsumÈ as having been the leader of a student group on a high school campus. They are simply not in the same boat.
That is why I support Hillman's opinion. We all want (in Hillman's words) "highly selective colleges and universities, such as Middlebury College, to provide the best education possible to a select group of educated and intelligent students," right? Sure, sounds good. But many of us would also agree that "highly selective colleges have a compelling educational interest in enrolling highly diverse -- including racially diverse -- classes." It is in those rare circumstances when these two ideals do not perfectly coincide that we must make moral decisions.
Personally, I choose to go with my instincts, and oppose the extra 20 points awarded to underrepresented minority students at some universities, because they have nothing to do with merit earned by the student, whether it be academic, leadership, or other. Perhaps these simple Sesame-Street-Kantian ethics have been burned into me from a young age, but that is how I, as well as many others who were also once five years old, view the dilemma.


Christopher Howard is an international politics and economics major from West Vancouver, British Columbia.