Importance of campus diversity depends on purpose of higher ed
Maureen Downey’s June 13 column asks, “Can campus diversity survive Supreme Court?” That is, will the Supreme Court rule against considering race in college admissions?
Downey’s column actually raises a broader question, “What is the purpose of higher education?” In a recent article in “The College Fix,” Princeton professor Robert George captures the competing answers: “The first -- the traditional view -- understands the mission as the disinterested pursuit of truth. The second understands the mission as advancing social justice and, indeed, a very particular, secular progressive and identitarian vision of social justice.”
If you answer the higher ed purpose question, that gives you the answer to college admissions. Specifically, if the purpose of higher ed is disinterested truth-seeking, then you focus on merit in admissions. If the purpose is progressive social justice, then you focus on demographics in admissions.
Now, how do we get people to agree on the purpose of higher ed? Beats me!
DANA R. HERMANSON, MARIETTA
No excuse for poor shuttle service at airport
Upon returning to the Maynard H. Jackson Jr. Airport International Terminal on a recent Saturday night from St. Lucia, we were appalled and embarrassed by the pathetic transportation from that terminal to the domestic terminal where all of the hotel, parking and transportation shuttles pick up people and where MARTA is located.
There was a huge line and no one to assist people. It took us one hour and 45 minutes to get onto a bus to the domestic terminal!
I felt horrible for people who had come from long flights to visit our state to be greeted by such terrible service. A gentleman who works at the airport stated there are no bus lanes so the shuttles get caught in the quagmire of traffic.
As a native Atlantan and Georgian, I do not understand why this exists. It is certainly not the way to build tourism. Just marking a bus lane and enforcing it would help the situation, but I guess no one cares that Atlanta looks like a country bumpkin!
PENNY HALL, ATHENS
