The Committee on Diver-sity and Community at Dartmouth released its final report two weeks ago, "Managing Diversity." The CDCD was appointed by President Freedman in the fall of 1992 to examine the state of racial diversity and community at the College.
While such topics are undoubtedly worthy of study, the project was doomed from the start. From its first meeting, the membership of the CDCD was the most biased of any committee I have seen during my four years at Dartmouth. To put it charitably, the composition of the CDCD was a joke.
Looking at a list of the CDCD's 14 members, the thought instantly crossed my mind: "Did any of these individuals vote for George Bush in the 1992 presidential election? Or for that matter, has any of these individuals supported a Republican for President of the United States in the past generation!"
As American elections are conducted by secret ballot, it is impossible to definitively state the voting behavior of the CDCD's membership. However, by studying the public record and interviewing observers knowledgeable about campus politics, my questions can be answered in a reasonably accurate fashion.
From my investigation, it seems highly likely that no more than one member of the CDCD voted for George Bush in 1992 and quite possible that no member of the committee did so. The same results apply to the question of whether anyone on the CDCD had supported a Republican for President in the past generation.
For a committee studying diversity to be so ideologically homogeneous is a disgrace. Apparently, President Freedman values the superficial markers of diversity such as race, gender, and ethnicity, far more than a genuine diversity of beliefs.
For the sake of Dartmouth, I would like my assertions to be proven wrong. Therefore, I challenge any member of the CDCD to write a letter to the editor in response to this column containing any one of the following sentences.
"I cast my ballot for George Bush in the 1992 presidential election."
"I approve of Ronald Reagan's job performance as President of the United States."
"I am a registered Republican."
"I believe that abortion should be illegal in most instances."
"I believe that affirmative action programs are counterproductive and should be discontinued."
"I do not believe that homosexuality should be included as a protected status in civil rights laws."
"I believe that affinity housing based on race is detrimental to the pursuit of racial harmony on campus."
While a significant percentage of Dartmouth students, Dartmouth alumni and the American public would agree with each of these statements, I am fairly confident that no more than one (and possibly no) CDCD member would agree with any of these sentiments.
The fact that former Student Assembly President Andrew Beebe '93, who called for the mandatory co-education of the Greek system, was one of the more moderate individuals on the CDCD gives a good indication of how ridiculously out of the mainstream the group was in its outlook.
Given the CDCD's membership, its conclusions come as little surprise. The committee asserts that racial and ethnic diversity "needs to be managed and facilitated in order to succeed. It simply does not happen on its own."
Hardly ever deviating from the politically correct orthodoxy, the panel calls for strengthening affirmative action and affinity housing, funding more race-based scholarships, hiring more bureaucrats to be responsible for diversity, increasing the budgets of ethnic organizations recognized by the Council on Student Organizations (presumably, at the expense of other less favored groups) and, of course, reforming the CFS system.
Top College administrators have lauded the CDCD's findings and are now studying how to best implement the recommendations contained in the panel's final report. The CDCD's final report should instead be thrown in the trash can and a more balanced committee should be appointed to restudy issues involving diversity.
Would the College take seriously the recommendations of any committee on diversity whose membership almost unanimously supported George Bush for President in '92? Of course not; the thought of such a committee even existing at Dartmouth is quite ridiculous.
But President Freedman does not seem to mind such obvious bias when it comes from his preferred side of the political spectrum.
CDCD members, please prove my argument wrong. I eagerly await your letters to the editor demonstrating your group's ideological diversity.
