The values of quality, diversity, and individual and institutional growth are all ethical components of this ideal. Since its formation AAHE has embodied these values in its various projects, conferences, and publications. These actions, which have eliminated race, ethnicity, and gender as considerations in admissions and scholarship decisions in the affected states and have led to cutbacks in recruitment programs for a diverse faculty and staff, threaten to undermine decades of progress in broadening access to higher education and reducing social stratification within it. In an alarmingly short time, their chilling effect on the racial and ethnic diversity of key campuses has become apparent. The Board believes that these rulings threaten not only diversity and access but also the overall quality of higher education and the public good it serves.
Diversity creates the rich environments that are so crucial to democratic, real-world learning.
Since by 2025 the American workforce will be predominantly comprised of people of color, access to higher education for historically underserved individuals is also in the nation's economic self-interest. The Board believes that institutions of higher education have a moral and educational responsibility to ensure that talent is developed in all communities, and that American colleges and universities collectively and individually are strengthened by diversity in campus populations. But statements alone, however compelling, are rarely sufficient to bring about systemic change. Given the momentum and gravity of the threats to achieving an equitable system of higher education in this country, the Association will sustain its efforts for years to come. It will also continuously reexamine the ways it carries out its organizational business to ensure that they are congruent with its values.