For the last few years, our campus has been overwhelmed with talk about the Top 20 Business Plan set out by UK President Lee Todd. Lately, the school’s focus averted toward the diversity aspects of that 2020 goal.

Recently, UK combined two separate commissions to form the Commission on Excellence, Diversity and Inclusion, according to a Nov. 25 Kernel article. J.J. Jackson, vice president for institutional diversity, will be the head of the commission that will begin in July of 2009.

While diversity is an important part of any university, one expert believes that it should not be such a large focus for UK— or any school, for that matter. George Leef, vice president for research at The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, said diversity efforts are not an essential part of improving education.

“These efforts concerning diversity are for show, and they will not help accomplish prestige,” Leef said in the Kernel article. “It’s a diversion.”

While Leef may believe this, maybe the school’s diversity budget just isn’t being used in the correct way. UK needs to focus its funding on diversity efforts that actually have an effect on the student body, instead of mediocre events attracting very few students. Student Government’s bribing of the students to attend these events by giving away iPod Touches can only go so far.

More of UK’s diversity budget should be focused on things like the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Center, African-American Studies courses and other diversity-related classes.

Any given day, any time of day, the MLK Center is filled with students. It has weekly events including salsa dance classes, poetry sets, dialogues and international conversation hours. Students attend these events, not for the chance of free gifts, but to expand their knowledge and decrease their ignorance of other cultures. That’s what diversity is all about.

Classes are also a critical aspect of increasing diversity awareness. Even though most students take them strictly for the credit hours, learning is sure to take place somewhere along the way. Maybe UK should think about a mandatory diversity class for students.

Leef may be correct in saying diversity efforts don’t have an influence on higher education, but it absolutely contributes to the well roundedness of a person.