What do Elite Universities Mean by "Diversity?"

At oral argument in the recent affirmative action cases, attorneys for the defendants argued that although they do ask applicants to check a racial/ethnic box, they do not limit their consideration of diversity just to those classifications, but also to religion, ideology, and other aspects of identity that affect viewpoint. (For example, Mr. Waxman for Harvard: "Harvard greatly values religious diversity.") That's what they tell the courts. Here, however, is how Yale Law School describes its upcoming "Diversity Homecoming:"

Please join us for Yale Law School's Diversity Homecoming, a two-day event in New Haven that fosters a dialogue on diversity among the YLS community.

The programming in New Haven, spanning Friday evening through Saturday evening, will feature remarks by Dean Heather Gerken, alumni and faculty presentations, and opportunities to engage with Yale Law School student affinity groups, including the Asian Pacific American Law Students' Association; the Black Law Students' Association; Latinx Law Students' Association; the Middle Eastern and North African Law Students' Association; the Native American Law Students' Association; and the South Asian Law Students' Association.

In a development that should surprise no one, YLS does not include religious or ideological groups in their list of student groups that contribute to diversity. Of course, Yale Law School isn't UNC or Harvard, the defendants in the case. And Yale does include the South Asian and MENA groups, for which there are no boxes on application forms. But I think we all know that Yale Law's narrow view of the sort diversity that contributes to the university experience is shared by other elite educational institutions.

Comments

[Joe_dallas]

“At oral argument in the recent affirmative action cases, attorneys for the defendants argued that although they do ask applicants to check a racial/ethnic box, they do not limit their consideration of diversity just to those classifications, but also to religion, ideology, and other aspects of identity that affect viewpoint. ”

Something smells like BS

[Longtobefree]

Racists gotta do racism.
Yale is racist.

[Sebastian Cremmington]

Meh, Dick Cheney got into Yale thanks to geographic diversity and George W Bush got in thanks to legacy. And George W Bush promoted geographic diversity for UT-Austin as governor which is still used in admissions to this very day. Didn’t you get lady wood during shock and awe when Bush started slaughtering innocent Muslims after 9/11??

[Don Nico]

Whataboutism, SC. Whataboutism.

[Sebastian Cremmington]

Do you long for the days when we slaughtered innocent Muslims so you could rub your nipples to something other than porn??

[Frank Drackman]

I know I did.

[J_A_H]

I went to a non traditional law school that was still pending ABA accreditation when I was enrolled. In one of our early reviews by the ABA accreditation committee we got dinged for poor “diversity” even though we were a non traditional law school that was explicitly catering to aspiring lawyers that did not fit well in a traditional law school. That meant we had a lot of students pursuing law as a second career, and working moms, and part time students, and students with poor LSAT scores or UGPA. I authored a response to the accreditation committee explaining that by any reasonable metric our student body was far more diverse than any traditional law school, and especially compared to elite law schools. The ABA response was that diversity did not mean diverse academic or professional backgrounds but explicitly referred to racial diversity, and they considered us lacking. The problem, as you might expect, goes well beyond just elite law school admissions.

[Noscitur a sociis]

The Roman Hruska School of Law?

[Frank Drackman]

The same diversity there was in music at “Bob’s Country Bunker”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS-zEH8YmiM
“Country AND Western”

Frank “Rawhide in A!”

[Michael D]

Yes, they had both country AND western.

[Scribe]

Never mind.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Even if they *wanted* to do diversity based on “religion, ideology, and other aspects of identity that affect viewpoint,” how would they have the expertise to set aside more-or-less objective criteria of merit and promote their diverse vision?

(Incidentally, pursuing religious diversity sounds like religious discrimination to me.)

If they really gave extra points to someone who was an intern at the Heritage Foundation over someone who interned at Brookings, how would that be reflected in the day-to-life of the school? What evidence do they have that ideological diversity is working out for them?

And does that benefit outweigh the (hypothetical) political discrimination faced by the Brookings Institute intern?

Should conservative Baptists really get a boost over better-qualified liberal Episcopalians? Should a Republican activist get a boost over a Democratic activist?

If that happened it would be wrong, though fortunately the news doesn’t give us much evidence of the presence of a bunch of affirmative-action right wingers.

[Amused Onlooker]

Let’s be real. They want visual diversity because it’s fashionable and easy to illustrate in a brochure. The rest of it is a smoke screen covering their ideological uniformity

[GreenLanternCorps]

A glorious rainbow of colors, marching in rigid ideological lockstep without deviation from orthodoxy.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I may be cynical, but maybe their vision of ideological diversity involves having a few Never-Trump Republicans and some who believe in “the libertarian case for gay marriage”? That would extend the political spectrum from socialists on the one hand to David Brooks types on the others.

[ReaderY]

You can’t seriously, consistent with basic logic, claim that the state has no interest at all in diversity when children are within families, labeling the very concept that such an interest exists not just irrational but animosity and a phobia, and then turn around and claim the state not only has an interest in diversity the minute they go to school, but this interest is compelling.

It’s understandable a broccoli farmer competing with spinach farmers would try to convince the public that the constitution hates spinach but loves broccoli, government support of spinach is unconstitutionally irrational but broccoli is a compelling interest. But if the broccoli farmer becomes a judge, he is supposed to set that personal-interest based mindset behind.

You can claim the state’s interest common to both cases is offset by different interests on the other side, and these differences result in different outcomes in the two cases. That would be a logically consistent position. But you can’t, consistent with basic logic, claim that the very idea of a state interest is irrational, indeed hateful, when children are at home and then say it’s compelling the minute they are in school.

[Brett Bellmore]

A state interest in diversity when children are within a family?

You mean, like having parents who are different genders?

[Ed Grinberg]

I’m not sure he knows what he means. (I sure don’t.)

[FosterWest1054]

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[Randal]

What other affinity groups do you suppose should be invited? I don’t think this demonstrates much about the admissions process or the University’s definition of diversity, but simply reflects the sorts of student affinity groups that tend to pop up.

Religious affinity groups are really just religions, for the most part. I’m not surprised there’s no Catholics at Yale group, there’s just the Catholic church.

Geographic diversity within the US doesn’t tend to strongly drive people’s self-identification. Midwesterners at Yale… what would they talk about? Corn? (International geographic diversity overlaps with race — many of the student groups cited above are geographically defined.)

Economic diversity is very fraught from this perspective. Do you think Yale should have a class system embedded in its student groups? Underprivileged Students at Yale and Privileged Students at Yale?

So David, please, what exactly were you expecting to see?

(I am surprised that Hillel isn’t on the list and am curious about why. But that by itself doesn’t support your claims.)