More Matter Action...affirmative

Author: Matty Van Meter

Middlebury's entire community deserves a round of applause for the steep rise in applications for the coming year. This level of interest is a broad statement of support for the college at a time when we are rising to new heights, and is a combination of work by students, faculty, staff and, especially, the administration. It is easy to view the collegiate powers that be as a negative force and an imposition, but their work is filling the mailbox at Emma Willard house. Congratulations, all.

As the college becomes increasingly selective, it is inevitable that an oft-debated and divisive topic will come to the fore and send blood pressures up across campus. This topic is, of course, affirmative action. As is typical with such contentious issues, hard-liners on both sides seem incapable of having a meaningful dialogue with the other side, or even of seeing the value of new perspective and compromise. They wait instead for an imposition of their will from above, hoping that the Supreme Court will force everyone to perform affirmative action, or to make it illegal.

The first question about affirmative action must be this: what makes a diverse community? A diverse community is one whose members are as unique, whether racially, geographically, religiously, ideologically and experientially from each other and within themselves as possible. When members of a community are able to bring new experiential knowledge to a classroom or a dorm, the community always benefits. The benefit is difficult to quantify, but the results in class and on campus are tangible enough. A good student is made up of more than varsity athletics, high grades and community service, though these things are all important and should not be overlooked. A good student is one who adds something new to the college. Admissions should take a catholic look at students applying as, I believe, they do.

So why affirmative action? Let us take this term to mean specifically preferential treatment in admissions for non-whites. In the firstplace, there are non-racial categories who receive preferential treatment in Middlebury admissions without having a snappy name for it: males, international students, talented athletes, women interested in math and physics, people from certain states and a number of other groups. This is all in the interest of diversity; the debate only arises, as it often does in America, when the preference is racial.

This is not to defend a system of quotas, which I think most people understand is wrong, and was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2003, but rather to say that being non-white in America, like it or not, is different from being white, and that having students of diverse life experiences is beneficial to everyone in a community like Middlebury's. Affirmative action comes at a cost, of course; colleges which actively pursue increased diversity on campus take a hit in their mean SAT scores and alumni giving. When Weslyan University decided to shed its WASP-y exclusive image, it fell in the rankings, but gained something more important: a more valuable and educational experience for their students, both WASP-y and otherwise.

The most important thing to remember is this: affirmative action is not in place to make up for our tortured national racial history, nor just to help out students who may not have had the opportunity to succeed until their acceptance, but to benefit all people in the community. And we are a better place for it.