Does it truly reflect in percentages the make up of the state?
And secondly, why should that even be the goal?
The goal should be to graduate the best and brightest so they can improve society. That has nothing to do with diversity. In fact it would tend to hamper it.
It doesn't have to exactly match. There is no such requirement. That's why I said generally reflective of the overall population. It will never be a match and I don't think that is necessary because some groups of people attend college at a higher rate than others- women attend college in higher percentages than men - especially now.
I find value in a public college generally being reflective of the makeup of the overall population of a state given all people pay -at least a small amount- to fund public colleges. I think that provides a richer experience for students, especially students - like me- that came from a part of South Carolina where nearly everyone looked just like me.
It's not just graduating. The goal for students anywhere (high school, college) is to learn, grow, mature, and of course graduate. For example, my son is- as I type this- working on a music audition for USC. He's not going to major in music most likely. But he desires to participate in several groups in the school of music. He's already good enough to make extra income playing with various groups in the community. He particularly likes a particular teacher at USC who brings a very different background to the instrument my son enjoys. Thankfully, USC has this teacher on staff because of their employment outreach so they can offer this experience to students. I barely know anything about it. My son loves that this teacher is at USC. He won't graduate, most likely, with a degree in music, but it has absolutely helped him grow and develop and if he can get in this group, that will also help him for the rest of his life.
Some people, like me, believe college is more than just studying and graduating. It is of course key to graduate. Too many people go and never graduate. I had too many friends at USC that attended and never graduated.
I don't agree with you regarding diversity. I found tremendous value in meeting different people from different backgrounds and learned a lot from them. I didn't really take time, at the time, to appreciate it. But I am thankful now that my sophomore roommate was an engineering student from Germany. A student that USC recruited through a program to bring students from different countries to campus. I learned a lot from him- and he probably learned something from me. One of our best friends that year was a student from France- brought to USC by outreach efforts by the university. I couldn't have known then that 30 years after graduating, my next door neighbor would be from Germany. We hit it off immediately and have become not only friends but also did some business together because of a connection I made with a German student my sophomore at USC.
I find value in that. You don''t. That's ok.