Harvard student SLAMS Ivy League school's race-based admission system

Babphavong said the policy only promotes "visual diversity," not ideological diversity.

Harvard Student Kelley Babphavong slammed Harvard's race-based admission policy.

Her comments come after a federal judge upheld as constitutional a policy that holds Asian American applicants to a higher standard.

Harvard University student Kelley Babphavong slammed her college’s race-based admissions policy, saying the reason the school gave for the policy, which was to achieve greater diversity on campus, is “not actual diversity” because it doesn’t factor in diversity of viewpoitnts.

A federal court upheld Harvard’s admission policy, which holds Asian American applicants to a higher standard than students of other races, as constitutional on Tuesday, as Campus Reform reported. 

Babphavong, who is Asian-American, joined Fox & Friends on Thursday to discuss the policy and why she disagrees with it. 

”It’s not actual diversity. Actual diversity would be economic or ideological slant. But this is only a visual diversity. It’s faux diversity,” she said.

”We should be looking at people’s hard work, their grit, their individualism. We shouldn’t be looping them into different racial groups and assuming homogeneity,” the Harvard student added. 

[RELATED: Federal judge recommends ‘bias trainings’ for Harvard admission officers in affirmative action ruling]

As Campus Reform also reported recently, Harvard administrators kicked off the school year by emphasizing the importance of free speech on campus and not silencing opposing viewpoints. 

“It sends an important message to the country that Harvard prioritizes the protection of free speech on its campus,” Harvard Republican Club president Victoria Marquez told Campus Reform. “Its policies seek to protect the rights of both speakers and protesters. Listening to different perspectives challenges us all to reevaluate our beliefs, and open, productive discourse is critical to Harvard’s mission of educating citizen-leaders. We should all make it a personal mission to foster respectful free speech on campus.”

Despite those statements, Babphavong said that, at least when it comes to the admissions process, Harvard is “only looking at visual diversity.”

”I wish they were looking at more significant forms of diversity, like ideological basis,” Babphavong said. 

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