An Open Letter to Dean Fitzsimmons

By Michael W. McLean

To Dean Fitzsimmons and members of the Admissions Committee:

As you well know, high school seniors from around the country are in a state of nervous anticipation. It is that time of year. In about a month, colleges will notify students of their admission decisions. For those seniors who are part of the 29,000-applicant pool to the Harvard class of 2013, the anticipation is especially high. After the admission letters are mailed and the facts and figures of the class of 2013 are printed in the next day’s Crimson, I suspect the headline will read something like this: “Harvard admits most diverse class to date.” I write this letter in preemptive response to that headline. 

There is no doubt that a specific type of diversity—racial and socio-economic—exists at Harvard and in recent years we have witnessed the growth of this type of diversity. Minority students comprise 40 percent of the class of 2012, making the freshman class the most racially diverse in Harvard’s history. Additionally, 60 percent of the class of 2012 receives financial aid, making the freshmen class also the most economically diverse in Harvard’s history. Diversity serves a positive purpose at a university, especially when that diversity does not come at the expense of the quality of the students. 

Yet despite what the figures say, I believe that the most important diversity—the diversity of ideas—is blatantly absent. So, I urge the committee to rethink the meaning and purpose of diversity at Harvard as you prepare to extend a welcome to the class of 2013. As the gatekeepers, you must question if true diversity exists at Harvard or whether it is only a façade. Harvard has achieved what I call the diversity of similarity, which is no diversity at all. In fact, it offers little educational benefit. 

The diversity of similarity works this way. Applicants of varying race, religion, geographic origin, and socio-economic background are admitted to the College, yet for all the appearance of diversity on paper, these applicants actually think quite alike. Their worldviews are surprisingly similar and their political beliefs almost identical. On appearance, the Caucasian Californian, the Hispanic Texan, the Native American Midwestern, the Chinese Bostonian, and the African American New Yorker may seem like an incredibly diverse group. They hail from equally diverse ethnicities and hometowns. However, when you strip away the façade of race and overlook hometown, the diversity disappears. What I have just described is a meeting of the Harvard College Democrats or for that matter the Harvard Students for Choice, the IOP, or many other student groups on campus. 

It is no secret that our beloved university leans leftward. Just take a seat in the dining halls and classrooms, and you will soon discover that the professors and students spout the same thinking, the same ideas. Harvard needs a diversity of thinking, a diversity of ideas. It is that diversity that is central to the liberal arts education. It is the diversity of thinking that creates debate and inquiry at the core of the Harvard experience. 

At this rate, it seems that the most diverse group at Harvard may be the underrepresented, lonely group of conservatives that comprise the Harvard Republicans and the members of this fine publication. At least this is a group that adds true intellectual diversity to Harvard and breaks the stale political and intellectual culture that has settled in the classrooms and in the Yard. 

I believe the current situation, the diversity of similarity, should trouble you as members of the Admissions Committee tasked with selecting a diverse set of applicants for next year’s class. Paper diversity is easy to find. Intellectual diversity is difficult to uncover. Yet, I have confidence that the task is not beyond the ability of Harvard’s Admissions Committee. 

Here are some solutions you may wish to consider: Add a new essay challenging applicants to propose a solution to a current controversial issue of their choice. Such a prompt might help reveal an applicant’s worldview. Interviewers could place more emphasis on assessing candidates’ diversity of ideas. In recent years, Harvard has launched a public relations campaign to dispel the myth that Harvard is accessible only to the rich and well connected. Now, Harvard could launch expanded recruiting in traditionally conservative areas, thereby making the Harvard brand friendlier to conservatives and others who see the College as a liberal ideologue’s haven. Or maybe just add a political identification scale checkbox on the common application. That might solve our political diversity problems. But I also suggest you check with the lawyers on that one. 

To fulfill our motto, Veritas, we need a real diversity of ideas and intellectual thought to find the “truth.” At a university that has achieved gender balance and expanded racial and socio-economic diversity, political and ideological diversity is long overdue. Simply put, admit more conservatives. Our numbers could use the boost and the educational experience the added benefit.