Diversity

At UCLA only 2% of incoming freshman are African American. The UCLA Magazine has a long article about it and it has been in the papers. It is an important issue.

Founders Rock at UCLA

There is a temptation to go back to the days before prop 209 to the days of “affirmative action.” When people were judged differently based on their ethnicity. This idea was wrong when whites did it to Blacks and Jews and it is still wrong when the roles are reversed.

The University should remain a meritocracy while attempting to maximize diversity . It is important to preserve the meritocracy or in the long run it will fail in its mission. It is important to maintain diversity because among other things no group in society should feel excluded. This is a difficult burden and it will certainly require that merit be judged more broadly than scores on the SATs. But in the long run all of our society will benefit. I like idea of affirmative action for the children of people who didn’t complete college and even more for the children of those who didn’t complete high school. See my article on Royal Jelly for more thoughts on this subject.