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. But even if we just stick with equality, it's important to remember how far UNH has to go toward its diversity goals. Minority students are not treated equally here now, every day, housing lottery or not, because they are denied the cultural support system embedded in UNH for white students. Equality, in this context, takes on a complexity beyond superficially equal treatment, such as subjecting everyone to a housing lottery.