To the Editor:
Dean of the College James Larimore was quoted as saying "It's clear to us from research that the most academically qualified students in the country are students who have an interest in being in a diverse educational community."
This I find to be completely ludicrous. Do we now ask applicants on our admissions form whether or not they 'appreciate' diversity? And what type of diversity are we talking about? Intellectual diversity? I'm all in favor of that. Superficial diversity that's predicated on nothing more than a person's skin color? That is something else entirely -- but most likely, this is what Dean Larimore meant.
Larimore's insistence that the brightest students have an 'interest' in diversity sounds Orwellian -- are you not bright if you don't appreciate diversity (at least, not in the way Larimore appreciates it)?
If you don't agree with the administration's notions of 'diversity,' are you then somehow lacking intellectually?
Colleges like Dartmouth need to abandon this misguided emphasis on superficial diversity and focus on what they are supposed to be doing in the first place: educating intelligent students.