When you think of the word diversity, what comes to mind?

Perhaps you think about a workplace or school with people from every different background who all get along wonderfully and learn a great deal from one another. Or maybe you think about how universities such as Penn State use methods like affirmative action to achieve the goal of diversity.

This is the problem with diversity, at least at Penn State. To achieve its goal of diversity, Penn State not only accepts individuals based on academic merit and community involvement, but also by the color of their skin.

If Penn State was to look no further than what really matters (grade point average, SAT scores and the level of involvement a student has), then there would not be such a heated argument over diversity today.

I feel that Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) has every right to make fliers that discredit the importance of diversity, because Penn State tries too hard to promote it.

If I heard that 90 percent of Penn State professors were registered Democrats, I'd start questioning diversity, too.

If I heard that minorities were receiving more scholarship money than whites and for achieving less academic success, I'd start questioning the methods for achieving diversity.

These students in YAF are getting the impression that they're being locked out of society and are on the losing end in Penn State's quest for a utopia of diversity.

If 40,000 students who were all accepted by academic merit attended Penn State, there would still be plenty of diversity to go around.

There's no reason to accept students based on their skin color, whether white, black, Hispanic or Asian. It's flat out racist.

Making exceptions for people based on their skin color does nothing more than create more tension between racial groups, which is occurring right now at Penn State.

It's probably only a matter of time before Penn State starts accepting students based on religious beliefs or political views. I have nothing against diversity, but Penn State needs to find a new method of achieving it.