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Letter perfect The May 11 New Republic'scorrespondence page started off with a letter from Joanne Creighton praising a pair of recent articles in that journal which argued that affirmative action is a necessary component in increasing access for African Americans and other people of color to economic, academic, and political opportunities. "Far from being the academy's currently 'fashionable mantra,'" President Creighton wrote, "diversity is an essential component of education; it helps to bring the expanding spectrum of cultural and ethnic perspectives animating our society into the classroom. Implicitly or explicitly, educational institutions must always consider not just how and what we teach but to whom we teach and why."