Friday, January 27, 2012

Should we believe in equal opportunity or equal representation? -- A letter to Daily Texan

Dear Editor,

I read the article "Diversity remains issue despite efforts" (http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2012/01/27/diversity-remains-issue-despite-efforts
) published on the Jan. 27 , 2012 issue of Daily Texan and have some opinions on this topic.

I agree that it is a noble and admirable goal for UT to help underrepresented minorities improve their high-school education, and I fully support this effort. However, I do not understand why it is the duty of UT President to pursue a student body that "better reflect(s) the state population". As the article rightfully points out, university admission should consider "academic achievement, personal achievement and special circumstances", rather than race and ethnicity. Therefore, the student body of UT should be a natural reflection of college preparedness, rather than the sheer population, of different ethnic groups in the state of Texas.

While UT should play an important and positive role in pre-college education, the obligation to get minority high-school students better prepared for college, however, should fall on the state, the cities, and leaders of minority groups. Without changing the situation in high-school education it is dangerous for the University to impose student diversity because this will inevitably compromise the principle of equal opportunity in university admission.

The core question on this issue, as I see it, is whether we should believe in equal opportunity or equal representation. This is truly a dilemma because it is impossible to believe in both unless students from different ethnic groups are equally achieved and equally prepared for college education and the challenge beyond college. Unfortunately, this is not what the reality is. While on the one hand we should change this reality by making underrepresented minorities more prepared, on the other hand we should be careful not to give up the principle of equal opportunity. This is because equal opportunity, rather than equal representation, is what brings competitiveness.

Let us look at a simple example. If I am not mistaken there is not a single Asian on the roster of UT football team. Imagine what our reaction would be if Mack Brown says we need to have 19% Asian players on the team to reflect the state population. We would think this is beyond ridiculous. Why? Because most Asians are not prepared for playing football! We strictly enforce equal opportunity on the football field because we passionately want to win. Then why do we give up this principle when we want to win on the much bigger field -- the global economy? If we cripple ourselves by excluding the best available players from our team we will do a great favor to our competitors. There is no obvious scoreboard on global economy, but I am sure a loss in this field will be much bitter to swallow than a losing season in the Big 12.

Sincerely,

Xi Chen
Postdoctoral Fellow,
Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology,
University of Texas at Austin

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