Editor:

The article (“U hosts multicultural event for high school seniors,” Jan. 20) had me thinking about our progress on the road to ethnic fairness and to equality.

Perhaps it’s the danger of free association, but whenever I hear about bringing diversity to an institution, I automatically think “acquiring a commodity.” Some other words that come to mind in the context of either needing and/or wanting a commodity are “benefactor” and “beneficiary.”

If we truly agree that all people are equal, then it should go without saying that all people deserve the right to all levels of educational opportunity. This embodies a holistic approach to community inclusion, as opposed to a fractured model in which some have access and others do not.

As Einstein said, you can’t fix a problem from the mindset that created it in the first place. Rather than adding a quick-fix, band-aid appendage to the archaic system that caused us to lose diversity in the first place, we need to actively work to dismantle this system and replace it with one that values all people equally.

Diversity for its own sake is a poor attempt at equality.

Colyn Kilmer

Junior, Pre-Communication