But their version of diversity is only skin deep. The implication of its argument is that if you put a wealthy WASP from Grosse Pointe next to the daughter of a Scandinavian-American auto mechanic from the Upper Peninsula, they will agree on everything merely because they are both pale of hue. Maybe whites really do all think alike. Take a number. In any event, it will come as news to many people to find that elite institutions are determined to get a robust exchange of views in the classroom, no matter what it takes.
Law schools tend to be liberal places, and Michigan's is no exception.
James J. White, a professor there, says the school has some young conservatives on the faculty but estimates that 75 to 80 percent of his colleagues voted for Al Gore. A generation ago, he says, the split between Republicans and Democrats would have been closer to 50-50. In that respect, Michigan is representative of prestigious law schools in general. In 1996, Northwestern University law professor James Lindgren did a survey of law faculties at the top 100 schools and found that 80 percent of the scholars identified themselves as Democrats, while only 13 percent were Republicans. But as a group, law professors there are well to the left of America.