I write this on February 27th 2025 with some dismay. Recent announcements have affected Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts at higher level institutions across the U.S. I want to be clear - this is not a political statement. I am not condoning any political views.
That being said - from my own experience, there is a clear value in diversity on campus. If people at top level institutions are the nation’s or even the world’s next leaders (as we hear so often), shouldn’t they have a good understanding of the nation - and of the world?
I have friends who attended private school from kindergarten all the way through senior year. They’re not a different species - but they objectively don’t know about the difference in lives.
I didn’t know anything about second vacation homes or ski trips. I didn’t know that you could have family friends at a major company who herd you in with referrals. I didn’t realize people bought private SAT tutors or private college counselors.
In the same way, they don’t know about my parents both being immigrants. They don’t know about having 7 siblings and being a military child. They don’t know about moving around. They don’t know about being the darkest person in a class full of whites and asians. They don’t know about being from a small town and not having access to resources.
I’m not trying to weigh in on the specifics of diversity, equity, and inclusion. There’s a lot of intricacies that are far above my paygrade. But I do know diversity on campus - diversity of background, culture, social class, religion, language, ethnicity - matters. Without this, institutions breed ignorance rather than knowledge. Regardless of how it occurs, it’s clear that we need to maintain and value diverse groups of people at elite institutions.
Seth Robles, MIT 2027
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