I’m not quite sure how Andy Dolberg managed to compare the University’s Diversity Plan to totalitarian regimes responsible for killing millions of innocent people (“Diversity Plan wrongly suppresses one class to elevate another one,” ODE, May 31). I have read his commentary multiple times, and I see no logical connection between Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and the University. This type of disjointed rhetoric has been popularized in recent years by political pundits and Seinfeld fanatics who relish any opportunity to compare oppositional agendas to Nazism and add little constructive criticism to the debate.
As far as I know, the University does not promote the killing of anyone and it does not aim to divide the campus into separate groups according to appearance or beliefs. The goal of the Diversity Plan is to create a multicultural environment that advocates heterogeneous political and religious beliefs for the benefit of the entire University community. These goals are the antithesis of Hitler’s fascist regime. If you are opposed to the Diversity Plan, then I encourage you to critique it in an organized and logical fashion rather than launching an attack on communist and socialist beliefs in general. Making these types of ill-fitting comparisons does nothing but trivialize the deaths of millions of innocent people.
Dave Jaklevic
Graduate Teaching Fellow