How to integrate economic analysis into classroom discussions of diversity?

The companion issues of racial preferences in college admissions and minority representation in the faculty ranks figure prominently and provocatively in social discourse today. As a result, questions related to these potentially divisive issues arise naturally in the course of classroom discussions of current events. This paper advances a set of teaching principles that serves to frame the debate and integrate economic analysis into the objective assessment of these issues. This framework is then applied to the examination of three seminal, real-world questions related to diversity in higher education.