A Campus Reform report, featuring interviews with students at the University of Florida, led some students to question their support for diversity quotas if they were applied to the school’s D1 football program.
The Campus Reform reporter filmed interviews with students during a Gators gameday, asking whether they would support diversity quotas “in the workplace and the college admissions process.” Initially, all the students interviewed favored using diversity to make hiring and admission decisions.
“They should probably have diversity quotas for college admissions and a bunch of other things,” expressed one student. “As a first-generation college student from a Hispanic household it’s very important,” another student stated.
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But when the reporter asked if diversity requirements should be applied to college sports, all the same students immediately rejected the notion, citing the need to let talent, skill, and ability be the determining factors for athletics. “Obviously, with sports, it’s talent first over anything,” said one interviewee. Applying diversity quota to a sports team “doesn’t make much sense; it should be based on skill,” said another.
Some students attempted to justify the apparent inconsistency in their responses by arguing that sports are “different” from hiring and admissions.
The reporter then presented the students with what would hypothetically happen if a diversity quota, reflecting the school’s own demographics, determined the Gators’ starting offense. According to the reporter, the unit would lose most of its current starters and only one black player would remain.
Some of the interviewees began to openly question the logic which led to their initial support for diversity quotas. “We’d probably be losing because we recruit based on skill and if we recruited based on diversity we’d probably be worse,” one student concluded.
The reporter asked if they had changed their minds and whether the logic they applied to reject diversity quotas in sports should also be applied “in other sectors like the work place, like college admissions.”
“It is a good way to open your eyes” and “admit students based on their scores and their academic merit more so than diversity,” replied one student. “I don’t necessarily think quotas are the way to go. I know they’re unconstitutional. I know they’re wrong,” said another student.
In recent years, colleges have been spending millions of dollars on promoting diversity initiatives in schools and within their administrations. (RELATED: REPORT: America’s Top 25 Private Schools Are Pushing ‘Anti-Racism,’ ‘Equity’ Initiatives)