It's simplistic to think our civil rights visionaries would've endorsed a policy destructive to the goals they died for. Affirmative action opponents fail to grasp the value and the power of diversity, the essence of which runs far deeper than skin color. Preferences are about redressing the wrongs of the past, but they're also about righting the present. It's certainly easy, living in New Hampshire, to think of our reality as fine as it is. People like the status quo.
Conservatives fail to see the potential benefits from the risk of diversity.
Equality is an admirable goal. But it's also a lowest common denominator. Societies can be hopelessly poor, ignorant and immoral, and still boast of equality. A university community should strive for something higher. Enlightenment, let's say, with the recognition that our peers, in all their variations, offer the most profound and useful sort of knowledge.