Issues surrounding diversity have always been a sticky wicket at Iowa State for several reasons.

Perhaps one of the greatest is the lack of a good concrete definition of what diversity really means.

You can’t expect people to commit to a term that isn’t spelled out.

What does diversity mean?

To many African-American students, it means more black faces on campus, in the classroom, Black Entertainment Television and better rap acts than Tone Loc at Veishea.

To some of the Caucasian students on campus, diversity is another way of saying the state they grew up in has much to be desired because it’s largely white.

To others, diversity means a celebration of differences.

No one is on the same wavelength.

The Board of Regents have set a goal for minority enrollment at 8.5 percent, but currently it adds up to 6.6 percent.

If we hit 8.5 percent, will we suddenly be diversified? Why is 8.5 the magic number?

Will our years of effort suddenly pay off as everyone suddenly gets what it is to belong to a diverse community?

Iowa State recruits minority students, but many would argue that it does little to keep them here.

Others would posit that Iowa State has no obligation beyond recruitment.

Still others want to know what, if anything, can be done to keep minority students enrolled.

There is always talk of a multi-cultural center.

What will that do?

Will its construction suddenly send ripples of diversity throughout the community as it acts as a monument to our commitment to diversity?

Diversity has never been clearly defined except to say that we don’t have it here.

You can attract as many different kinds of students as you want to Iowa State in numbers that would surprise Copernicus, but, at the end of the day, Iowa State sits squarely in the middle of a really white state.

We can’t keep people who grew up in Iowa in the state after they graduate, how are we supposed to convince students from around the country to stay here and slog it out against the odds when they find it easy enough to quit, transfer to other schools or just go home?

We can talk about numbers until we are all blue in the face, but the truth is, diversity is too subjective a term to work with.

Iowa State needs some concrete terms to speak with and concrete goals to shoot for that make sense.

Until we do that, we are going to be spinning our wheels.

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Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas, Carrie Tett and David Roepke.