We live in a diverse, multi-cultural society. To fulfill the University's mission, we must provide opportunity and achieve greater diversity than we have in the past. And we must also educate students to understand the society in which they live. We have taken on a formidable responsibility with these statements. And while there may be many ways to serve society and provide access, educating more minority students and bringing more women and minority faculty into the mainstream of higher education are among the most direct and important.
Affirmative action is, finally, a matter of sound educational policy and practice.
For faculty, it is desirable in order to establish fair representation, achieve equity, and expand the faculty talent available to American higher education. The racial and ethnic diversity of students and faculty, many believe, contributes significantly to the quality and richness of education and to the fulfillment of a land-grant university's public mission. We learn in some sense through distinction, contrast, and difference. We learn from new ideas and new experiences. We learn from others who are different from ourselves, as well as from books.