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"Let's say Plato, just because I'd like to hear a Greekphilosopher in my language. See, I'm convinced thatPlato is garbled in translation/' replied ChancellorMitchell when he was asked to choose historical figuresfrom the past he would like to invite to dinner. TheChancellor, himself, is in a similar position. He is oftenspoken of, but much less frequently are his views presenteddirectly by him. Here he discusses three of themajor campus issues this year: admissions policies, thepopularity of college administrators with students, andthe role of institutions of higher learning in general.You know, you don't have to be a minority ordisadvantaged person to be a dumbbell. We've gotsome very high class, wealthy dumbbells in oursociety, so background is not the basis fordistinguishing who can and should go to a universityor college. It's also true that many people who aredisadvantaged go to inferior elementary andsecondary schools. They've grown up in homes wherelittle or no emphasis is placed on education. Thispenalizes them in such a way that they can 't defendthemselves. They shouldn't be thrown off as discardsof society if there is a chance that we can repair thatdamage and give them an opportunity to go intohigher education.But, like everything else, you have to do this right.You owe it to people, to the people you aremanipulating, to do it properly. This is why, even atDU, if we are going to recruit disadvantaged students,and we are and should, then we are going to haveto understand that many of the tests that you'dordinarily use to judge someone, are written formiddle class white students, and others don't showup well on them. And many of the schools thesestudents come from are likely to be inferior schools,or have inferior faculty or defective apparatus of onekind or another.With open admission, you must have teams ofcompetent people who help students upgrade lackingskills that would otherwise have kept them out ofcollege. It's a cruel deception to let anybody in andthen throw everybody out. Hopefully, 20 or X manyyears from now, we will have so improved theadvantages of minorities and disadvantaged citizens,that they' ll all have decent elementary and secondaryeducations. Then, those who feel that they wantto will be competent to go into colleges anduniversities. Until that time, I don't see any harmin taking people who show intellectual promise,whether or not they have the equipment, and thenproviding the educational opportunities to upgradethem -that's what's happening at CCNY. There youhave a city of seven million people with a lot ofmoney and a flat-out desire to test this principle onceand for all. I' m for that. I think it's a magnificentexperiment, and more likely to work than to fail."We've got some veryhigh class, wealthydumbbells in ourSOCie . t y ..."34