We are told that there must be enough women on college campuses for learning to go on. We are told that there must be a sufficient number of members of different minority groups – and that the failure to meet such balance is prima facie evidence of discrimination. So why the uproar over this?

Civil rights investigators will soon begin reviewing admissions data from a sampling of colleges in the Washington region to determine whether, after decades of progress toward sexual equity, female students have become so plentiful in higher education that institutions have entered a new era of discrimination against them.

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Women apply in greater numbers than men to most colleges in the D.C. area. They make up at least three-fifths of the applicant pool at a number of schools, including the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Goucher and St. Mary's colleges in Maryland and American University in the District.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that some schools are favoring men by admitting them at higher rates than women to try to preserve a male-female balance on campus. Conventional admissions-office wisdom dictates that colleges dominated by either sex are less appealing to applicants in general.

Odd. Isn’t that called affirmative action when used to make sure that there are enough women and minorities on campus? Isn’t that exactly the sort of admissions game-playing that goes on to make sure that there are enough of some groups and not too many of other groups in each class? Don’t colleges do that to make sure that the entering freshman class includes the required number of left-handed Lutheran lesbians? Why the angst over making sure there are enough men – well, other than the fact that men are supposed to be disfavored under affirmative action plans, and the over-representation of women and minorities is supposed to be proof of success and non-discrimination.

Here’s a thought – take the top candidates for admission, regardless of what boxes they check for race and gender, and let the chips fall where they may. Maybe it will inspire some folks to work hard in school and get the grades they need to be admitted to these schools without preferences being shown. But for that to happen, we as a society need to overcome the fetish of proportional representation that has become so prevalent in academics and business over the last few decades, based upon a hundred court decisions and government regulations. Are we really prepared to focus on merit, come what may?