MIT faces this issue. The way they solve it is to create two classifications for minorities; regular minorities and "underrepresented minorities". The latter are all minorities whose percentage in the MIT student body is less than that of the overall U.S. population. Any underrepresented minority that applies and meets admissions criteria is accepted. Any other minority (e.g., those of Asian heritage) competes at the same level as all other students.
That this is not just an end-around to artificially change the makeup of the student body through quotas regardless of academic qualifications can be proved by the fact that underrepresented minorities have stayed that way throughout the years of this policy. And the percentage of students of Asian heritage still far outstrips the number you'd see if they were artificially held down to the level that they are in the overall population.
What's the graduation rate and class ranking of "underrepresented minorities" vs. all other students?
The traditional good luck wish that he have following winds is most likely to be the result of his own propensity to frequently break wind. Good to see that he is leaving the presidency of W&M. Maybe George Soros will buy him a college on the left coast to play in.
No one in academe will contemplate that some minorities may be underrepresented for a reason. The PC crowd wants to believe that all genders/races/ethnicities are equally talented and gifted in all areas. Imo, that is simply not so.
We can blame to a certain extent the underrepresentation of blacks and hispanics at a place like MIT on the school systems they’ve gone through which are notoriously poor in minority-dominated communities, and on the culture where a black student who strives to achieve is mocked as “acting white.” By the time a serious student from one of those areas survives his/her environment and is ready for higher education, s/he is just not trained well enough to compete against students who have benefitted from rigorous classes starting in kindergarten.
Asians, on the other hand, and as also contrasted with whites, encourage educational excellence in every way possible. I’m convinced Asian kids are given an abacus at birth!
Looking to the gender gap, my daughter went to a magnet science and tech school, recently rated #1 in the nation. Seriously competitive. Last I heard, they send more students to MIT than any other high school. Yet, even there, they strove and strove to get the girls to go into some of the higher science and tech programs. Most just weren’t interested or so inclined. Unlike the aforementioned black or hispanic students, these girls had every educational opportunity available to them, as well as innate ability. Their brains’ wiring led them in other directions.
Yet, the academic world continues the canard that all demographic groups have not only equal gifts and talents, but equal orientation.