to diversity in college and democratic health as one of the compelling governmental interests that
legitimates the use of preferential admissions policies. Justice O’Connor’s rationale in her
Grutter opinion directly linked the importance of educating citizens in an increasingly diverse
society as the “compelling governmental interest” needed to justify race based remedies (Guinier
2003).
The new civic rationale is underscored by the American Association of Colleges and
Universities statement on diversity -- one that is typical of college and university statements on
diversity. Their statement calls on universities to “deploy diversity as an educational asset for all
students, and prepare future graduates for socially responsible engagement in a diverse
democracy and interdependent world” (www.aacu.org 2006).
Universities often speak of diversity and civic engagement almost interchangeably.
Universities, so the familiar trope goes, must create “diverse learning environments” for the
challenges facing an increasingly multicultural society. Conversely, institutional efforts to
promote a more robust civic sphere must take the nation’s changing demographics into account.
The rhetorical interdependence between these two efforts, however, is seldom reflected in
campus practice. As McTighe (2005) observes, the explosion of civic engagement initiatives on
college campuses has occurred without a serious discussion of how diversity and otherness relate
to civics education. In her view, “the language of diversity has been decoupled from the
language of civic engagement” at college and universities (18).
This decoupling is troublesome for a few reasons. First, although diversity and civic
engagement efforts at colleges and universities are though to compliment each other, both terms
elude precise definition. Seldom are these phrases clearly defined in the public sphere. The
flexibility of the term diversity allows both proponents and opponents of flexible admissions
policies to claim support for a broader, popular principle of inclusiveness in a liberal democratic
3
Convention