College campuses today are so lopsidedly liberal and lacking in intellectual diversity, conservatives have an opportunity to reclaim the word.

Richard Vedder of Minding the Campus writes.

Let’s Reclaim the Word ‘Diversity’

Universities enjoy a privileged position in our society and lots of independence from political and economic forces, partly to provide an environment where diversity of views reigns -where conformist, stifling uniformity is suppressed in favor of a “free market in ideas.” Coupled with that historically has been a sense of meritocracy -the academy is an oasis where the intellectual able, the motivated, the disciplined, can break bread, spar verbally and learn.

But that’s not what our universities are like today. Campuses are filled with high-priced administrators collecting economic rents (unnecessary payments) promoting “diversity”–the favorite and most overused word of many administrators. But it’s a good word that has been subverted to promote the evaluating of groups of people on the basis of some physical characteristic rather on individual merit. Thus universities in their admission policies favor blacks or Hispanics over Asians and whites. Sometimes they favor women over men. Call it the New Racism.

The public mostly does not like this and, when given a chance, they forbid it. The voters of Michigan, a state that routinely supports liberal Democrats for president, did so in the aftermath of a 2003 Supreme Court decision involving the University of Michigan in which the Court narrowly allowed for racial composition to be considered in admissions decisions. The voters of Michigan said no to racially discriminatory practices.

Farewell to the New Racism

In the next year the legal environment permitting the New Racism likely will change. Soon we will get the Supreme Court’s ruling in Fisher v. Texas, challenging the University of Texas’s admission policy clearly favoring racial minorities. Additionally, the Supreme Court is going to review an appellate court decision overturning the Michigan Constitution as amended by the people by referendum. At issue here not only is “affirmative action,” but also whether our federalist governance structure will become even more a historical, fictitious artifact.