Diversity or discrimination?
After reading your article "Affirmative Action on the Stand" (March 2003), I was overcome by disbelief at the flagrant discrimination by many of those who defended race-based admission policies.
Several law school officials stated that they merely sought "diversity of all kinds" in their admission procedures. But the numbers indicate that a black student with an LSAT score of 160 and GPA of 3.25 has a 95 percent chance of admission at the University of Virginia, whereas a Hispanic or white applicant has a 3 percent chance. Are we to assume that these numbers, for equally academically qualified students, represent the ability to add something to other students "in a diverse world"? I take offense at the idea that my skin color renders me unable to offer a diverse opinion.
Yes, in some cases, it's not just numbers that matter. But the statistics for Duke students applying to law school show that, on average, being a minority magically adds 0.5 points to your GPA and 10 points to your LSAT score. In admissions here at Duke, being a minority effectively adds 200 points to your SAT score.
The counterargument that uses "a history of discrimination" to justify this current discrimination should be particularly offensive to minority groups that have been discriminated against historically and are deemed now, due to their higher achievement on average, not to be worthy of "reparations." I find this offensive because it is blatant systematic discrimination against me, but I would find it more so if I were an African American being told that race-blind admissions would mean "that it would be acceptable for the top schools in this country to train only white lawyers," as James Coleman, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Law, put it. At least before the Bakke case, administrators had the honesty to admit they were after quotas.
I await the day when our Supreme Court identifies this blatant discrimination and those who support it as what they are. Until then, I take little comfort in the fact that many of our administrators are scoffing openly at the laws of this country and plotting new ways to subvert justice.
Mark Boyd
Trinity '04
David Stein
Education Partnership Coordinator
Office of Community Affairs
What if Duke prepared more students to eschew the dubious world of "business ethics" and take on the blessed and messy work of teaching at a school like Watts? Or, perhaps we could start by training the Tri-Delts and Sig-Eps to respond like Carolyn Kreuger, meeting the challenge of helping a public school rather than fleeing to a private one.
Amy Laura Hall
Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics
Duke Divinity School
Recycling: Worth the Cost
Your article ("Rethinking Recycling", Oct. 2002) points out that the University cannot afford recycling without volunteer support. This reflects a dollars and cents argument that is indefensible for a university of Duke's stature.
The consensus from both our own National Academy of Sciences and the rest of the world is that, for purely selfish reasons, we should maintain open space and reduce waste and carbon-based emissions.
Therefore, demanding that recycling remain "cost-effective", as New York City and Duke appear to do, shows an unwillingness to participate in improving our global climate.
My hat is off to the volunteers of Duke Recycles! My donation to the University is on hold until it dedicates itself to this issue, one as important as any in its mission statement.
Dr. Erich Bachman
Cambridge, Ma.
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