ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the subject of diversity in higher education. Diversity can of course be defined in many ways, and few people tried to be more concrete in their definition than Charles William Eliot, who became president of Harvard just after the Civil War in 1869. Much has been written about how Eliot transformed Harvard from a small college into a genuine university, how he ushered in the elective system, and so forth. He saw that an inclusive vision of higher education not only would benefit individual students, but was also essential in a heterogeneous society whose citizens simply had to learn to live together if the nation’s democratic institutions were to function effectively and if its ideals were to be fulfilled. If looking briefly at developments during the major span of the 20th century, it is clear that the concept of diversity shifted meaning a number of times when applied to college and university admissions.
