Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies

Letters to the editor

Definition of diversity must go beyond rankings

Regarding the Features article in The Miami Student last week (Feb. 29, "Coexisting inside the bubble"), I found myself asking what diversity was. One popular view, as implied by the Miami University Diversity Report, is that diversity is the color of a person's skin, their religious background and their gender, among other things.

So how much diversity does a university need to be considered diverse? A widely held view is that the proportion of minorities within a university should be the same as that in the state the university is located in. This seems silly to me, as it would mean that women and Jewish students are overrepresented at Miami. Is this a case of Miami being too diverse? Of course not, but it does expose the ridiculous logic of proportionality.

I applaud the efforts of many in the university to create greater understanding and tolerance in Miami's culture through student organizations and classes. However, I think it is wrong how some frame the issue of diversity on such superficial, cut-and-dry terms of numbers and proportion. There is a way to create greater harmony on campus without making everyone think of others in terms of racial, religious or gender categories first, and people second. Unfortunately, such definitions of diversity as sometimes described in the Features article tend to encourage such views.

I believe the main reason that Miami remains so homogeneous in terms of ethnicity is because of the incredibly high tuition, not because Miami is an inherently racist university. This is because race and class are still regrettably in some ways related in American society. Offering more scholarships to students whose parents have low incomes can address this issue and increase ethnic diversity at Miami.

The catch is that increasing ethnic diversity does not automatically lead to greater tolerance and understanding. I am afraid that by aiming for a goal of artificial diversity, many will be disappointed when Miami finally reaches that point only to find that there is diversity in name only. Many universities have this kind of mock diversity, and while it may satisfy the Princeton Review's diversity rankings, should it satisfy us?

Matthew Barnesbarnesmb@muohio.edu

College Republicans active in local campaigns

Recently The Miami Student ran an editorial (March 4, "Campus student groups should not fall into apathy") warning the College Republicans that we should not fall into apathy because of our perceived inactivity regarding the presidential nomination process. I could not find this editorial more appalling. The only thing I find to be "apathetic" is what the editors and reporters of The Student continue to call journalism.

The Student is correct in the editorial that we could not endorse a Republican presidential candidate before that nominee had the 1,191 necessary delegates to secure the nomination. This means we cannot use College Republicans (whether it be our listserv, meetings, etc.) to campaign for or give an unbalanced opinion towards one candidate over any other. I would agree there is much more attention currently being placed on the Democratic side of the nomination process, but this is only natural because it was no closely guarded secret at the time that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was our inevitable nominee.

What our organization could and did do was keep our members apprised of what was going on in the GOP presidential race and any opportunities that sprung up. We had one member who caucused on behalf of McCain in Iowa, two who served as Ohio delegates to Mike Huckabee and our Conservative Week co-chair spent much of his winter break in New Hampshire working for McCain.

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Furthermore, I find it appalling that The Miami Student feels as though the only political race on March 4 was the one selecting our presidential nominees. Did they not realize we were also selecting our nominees at the state and local level as well? If The Student had done their homework instead of passing off words on paper as journalism, they would have found an extremely involved and active College Republican organization. Every week at our College Republicans meeting we host guest speakers, while providing many opportunities for involvement to our members. This year alone we have had the pleasure of hosting a U.S. congressman, a state senator, numerous state representatives, our county prosecutor, sheriff and treasurer and our county GOP chairman, to name just a few.

During the primary season, the College Republicans were actively working with two of our endorsed GOP nominees: State Representative Bob Mecklenborg and Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon. Both of these men faced strong primary opposition and College Republicans assisted each of their campaigns by providing volunteers for door-to-door campaigning, putting up yard signs and making phone calls. On election day we had numerous members working at poll locations, with some starting their day at 6:30 a.m. when the polls opened. These members stood outside in the freezing rain for hours on end, encouraging voters to select our GOP endorsed candidates. All of our efforts paid off, with the closest race of the two being decided by a 19 percent point difference.

Now that McCain is our Republican nominee you will see College Republicans flood this campus on behalf of our presidential candidate, educating Miami students about what he stands for and respectfully asking for their vote. By doing this we will simply be expanding on what what we do for all of our GOP candidates. Had The Miami Student done their homework they would have found an organization in College Republicans with a tremendous work ethic, constant drive for greater successes and thirst for running a professional operation.

Perhaps The Miami Student should look to College Republicans for inspiration.

Chris BerryChairman, Miami University College Republicansberrycj@muohio.edu