Against Affirmative Action at Fredonia  By February 1, 2006
Dunkirk-Fredonia Observer   Members of the Fredonia community
should be opposed to current attempts to diversify the SUNY
Fredonia campus. Those who want to promote diversity usually
want two things. First, they want a greater number of racial and
ethnic minorities (usually blacks, Hispanics, and Native
Americans) and, in some cases, women. Second, this is to be done
by lowering the standards for hiring and admission.  The reason
these policies are a bad idea is that they sacrifice merit.
Consider preferential treatment at competitive schools. When it
comes to student performance at the competitive schools, the
average black student ranks in the 23d percentile of the class
and the average Hispanic ranked in the 35th percentile. Hence,
replacing a black or Hispanic student admitted under these
admission practices with one admitted without regard to race or
ethnicity would likely produce a considerably better student. It
gets worse. Further evidence