When I first read Matt Senko's article in The Primary Source, "Ideas, Not Colors," I was shocked. I could hardly believe that he was serious. As a critique of the affirmative action system, this article seemed to argue that minority students at Tufts were not adding to the diversity of the campus, and in fact Tufts was lowering its standards in accepting them. Although Senko singled out African-American students in his article, his statement should be of concern for all students. Senko is trying to invalidate the right that minority students have to be on this campus, and these statements should not be delivered without any response.
His argument makes the glaring assumption that all students of color were accepted solely based on affirmative action, not on their grades, extra curricular activities, or essays; an assumption which is absolutely incorrect. He believes that in accepting these minority students, "more qualified" students were rejected.
I believe that Mr. Senko does not have a good understanding about how the system of affirmative action works. There are no quotas dictating how many people from each race need to be accepted every year. When the admissions office reviews two applications, an application written by a person of color is not accepted if his or her qualifications are worse than the application of a white student for the sake of diversity on campus.
The purpose of affirmative action is to simply broaden the scope of where admissions officers look for applicants. That is to say, if the application pool is more diverse, by default more students of color will be accepted. Tufts will not admit any student that it feels is not qualified to be here. The students of color at Tufts are not "lowering its standards" as Mr. Senko seems to believe!
Senko says that, "It is a racist assumption suggesting that people of different colors are inferior to whites and need the help of admissions officers." Again, I do not believe that Mr. Senko understands affirmative action. By adhering to the system of affirmative action, Tufts University by no means suggests that people of color are inferior to whites, and thereby need help to be admitted. Tufts is being realistic and recognizing the existence of racism in our society. This racism is ingrained in our education, employment, and judicial systems; it denies people of color the equal opportunities that by law they are guaranteed. Institutional racism is a malicious cycle that will continue to oppress unless active change to reverse its affects is utilized. Affirmative action is only one example of such change.
In his article, Senko posed the question, "does a student body characterized by various races and different skin tones necessarily equal 'diversity'?" He maintained that "only experiencing different ideas and outlooks achieves this goal." I agree with him that different ideas contribute to creating diversity, as do different religions, cultures, and experiences.
To ensure that diversity exists, however, we as a university must try to recruit students of color because these stated qualities cannot solely be found within the white race. There are many experiences that a person of a marginalized community has inherently lived through. To argue that a person of privilege can represent these experiences, or that they are not crucial towards our education as human beings is absolutely ridiculous.
Without the help of this diversity within our campus, among students, professors, and administrators, our school would be lacking many opportunities for education in classes about race, ethnicity, and religion, as well as discussion panels that are frequently offered, literary and art magazines, shows and organizations like the Spirit of Color, the Tasa show, and so many others.
This is everyone's issue no matter your race, ethnicity or identity because of the widespread influence that diversity has on our school. I am personally disappointed by the Tufts administration for not officially and vocally responding to this article. Tufts University DOES believe in affirmative action and its beneficial results of diversifying the school. Where has the administration been to support it's policy?
Karen Alroy is a majoring in Enviromental Studies.
