Diversity, diversity, diversity. For some on this campus, the word is little more than an ambiguous rallying cry whose intentions harm more students than it helps. Furthermore, such critics say affirmative actions programs, like the University of Wisconsin's Plan 2008, are held to contain dubious value in terms of widening racial gaps and tensions.

However, while few would argue the current system of diversity initiatives is perfectly effective, to claim that the end of creating a more diverse environment is not worthwhile, at the UW or elsewhere, is ludicrous. The purpose of diversity programs is to create a distribution of students or individuals that is representative of the communities that produce them or benefit from them. This is a necessary truth for both universities and the multitude of other organizations that wish to be accessible and appealing to the largest segment of society as possible.

Oftentimes critics confuse diversity programs like Plan 2008 with flat-out affirmative action programs. First, diversity is a concept in which an environment contains a variation of qualities or attributes. Diversity is not related simply to race but encompasses the range of subjects that people can differ on, such as political ideology, geographical origin or even intended major. Thusly, it is not a program intended to pass judgment or determine value based on the color of one's skin, but rather an idea that there is a benefit to be gained from being exposed to a variety of people.

Affirmative action, on the other hand, is a system or program that is designed to benefit groups that have traditionally been discriminated against. The impetus for the creation of these programs is that it is the system trying to correct past wrongs by giving additional access to benefits that had previously been deprived or hard to access. Affirmative action programs are manifestations of society trying to rid itself of systemic errors, i.e. discrimination, that should not persist in a free and equal social order.

While the end of these programs is to create a race-blind society, this ideal is predicated upon the notion that equal access to the benefits of government and society is present. This is why the contention that schools should soon adopt race-blind standards now is specious, since inequalities still remain within the system.

Diversity programs on campus serve an important function as well. After a recent Plan 2008 Student Forum meeting, many of the attendees, among them administrators and faculty, gave UW-Madison failing marks for its efforts to make the campus more diverse. This board is not the only one that disapproves of the university's efforts to increase diversity. Many top companies do not come to Wisconsin to recruit at the Business School because they think that the inadequate level of diversity does not prepare students to function effectively in the workplace. This highlights the necessity to install effective measures to increase campus diversity through the appeal to qualified applicants.

Another argument made against diversity programs here is that the student body adequately represents Wisconsin by having a minority population roughly equal to or slightly higher than the state's. According to Chancellor John Wiley though, "We're more diverse in this student body than the whole state of Wisconsin [but] is that good enough? Absolutely not, because we're not a state school, we're a national school." This is the attitude the university must possess if it is to stay at the forefront of colleges in terms of competitiveness and appeal.

To claim that diversity has no place on the campus is as asinine as to claim that a farm boy from rural Wisconsin does not need a premier education just because he is going back to the farm. Diversity is not a "nefarious" plot to judge people on the basis of race or to help unqualified applicants infiltrate the university. It is a concerted effort to expose students and future leaders to the variety of people that they will encounter in the work place in order to facilitate a better working social order. Diversity has an integral role to play on this campus and to be blind to that would be a terrible mistake.

Mike Skelly ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in finance and political science.