To the Editor:
Colleges can achieve diversity with or without affirmative action. Getting students to accept the challenges that diversity demands is another matter. Frank Bruni seems to envision a one-size-fits-all student, a paragon of political correctness, who will spend summers volunteering in other countries and wearing the colors of the rainbow like a suit of armor. Many will, but there are those who will take the required courses in multiculturalism and then encase themselves in their own parochial cocoon. And who is to deny them their right?
In my 50 years as a college professor, I have seen interracial romances blossom. I have seen students of different ethnicities bond after working on a joint project. I have also seen students isolate themselves in their own secure corner of the classroom, preferring to mingle with no one except their own kind. Let colleges pursue diversity in their own way, let professors teach their discipline and let students find their own way into this highly complex and marvelously diverse world.
BERNARD F. DICK
Teaneck, N.J.
The writer is professor emeritus of communication and English at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Note from KBJ: Laissez-faire.
