The trial under way in Boston, in which Harvard University is charged with discrimination against Asian applicants, raises many legal questions. But it also forces us to consider critical sociocultural ones. Although diversity does have some educational benefits per se, how should it be defined, and can it be achieved in a nondiscriminatory manner?

The case against Harvard is both statistically persuasive and ugly. The university is accused of using as a critical element in its admissions a vague “personal rating,” which according to the plaintiffs, was systematically jiggered to be lower in Asian applicants than for other applicants in such personality traits as “likeability,” “integrity,” and “courage.”