By Mary Morley
Recent opinion polls show that a majority of Americans think it is so important to have students of different races and backgrounds in higher education that colleges should be allowed to act to ensure a diverse student body.
But these attitudes seem to contradict laws. In the wake of landmark cases against the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Texas, race-based admissions and quota systems have been effectively outlawed.
This contradiction of attitudes and law leaves two questions in the minds of students and administrators at universities across the country: Should diversity in higher education be promoted, and if so, how can it be done in a fair manner?
BYU is one university grappling with these questions.
H. Nolan Reed, dean of students, said BYU needs to cultivate an ethnically and culturally diverse population.
'But, not just so we can say ''Look how diverse we are,''' Reed said.
BYU needs to have cultural diversity throughout the university so students can learn from each other, he said.
Reed said a lack of opportunities to interact with people of various backgrounds leads to lack of understanding.
People who have not had the opportunity to interact with a diverse population may ask ignorant questions like, 'What are you?' when inquiring about a person''s ethnic background, he said.
'The Lord has told us, ''If you are not one, you are not mine,''' Reed said. 'How can we become one without understanding?'
However, creating a diverse student body at BYU is difficult because multicultural scholars are highly recruited and offered scholarships by many schools, Reed said.
BYU''s Multicultural Student Services uses at least two programs to recruit students from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.
The Vision Quest program sends successful multicultural students to weekend assemblies of high school students and their parents to tell prospective applicants about the advantages of BYU.
The BYU students also give workshops about admissions qualifications so that, from the beginning of high school, multicultural students will know what they should do to be good candidates for acceptance, Reed said.
SOAR, or Summer of Academic Refinement, helps introduce multicultural students to the different activities and majors that interest them. SOAR also helps high school students become more likely to be admitted to BYU by offering courses such as preparation for the ACT, he said.
'The church has become so much more diverse that BYU needs to do everything it can to offer opportunity to all members of the church,' Reed said.
But BYU does not lowering admissions standards for multicultural students.
Associate Dean of Admissions Jeffery Tanner said race is not a factor that determines a student''s ability to succeed at BYU.
Tanner said everyone who is admitted to BYU must meet a certain set of standards.
Lowering standards for multicultural students to encourage them to attend BYU would not be doing them a service, he said.
'We''re not going to bring someone to the university that doesn''t have the ability to succeed,' he said.
If multicultural students were admitted at a lower standard, it might actually perpetuate the myth that multicultural students are not as prepared as other students, Tanner said.
In other words, it could reinforce pre-existing prejudices, he said.
Dolcie Thompson, 21, a senior from Phoenix, majoring in Spanish, said she agrees that diversity should be encouraged, but not by lowering standards for multi-cultural students.
'Any system that isn''t based on your qualifications is unfair,' she said.
Even though admissions standards are the same for all students, Thompson said some people continue to think she was admitted because of her race.
She said one person told her, 'You''re probably only here because you''re Mexican.'
Thompson said allowing the student body of BYU more interaction with people from various backgrounds would help avert ignorant comments like the ones that have been directed toward her.
'Having a more diverse student body would help students to have a broader understanding of the world,' Thompson said.
More diversity would also help BYU students learn how to interact with people with different cultural backgrounds without being overly cautious or offensive, she said.
Thompson said the programs BYU sponsors are good ways to promote diversity.
Having multicultural students identify and recruit other multicultural students that might want to come to BYU is a good start.
'I would be more than happy to be involved in something like that,' she said.