<p>is this a factual article or a joke?</p>
<p>New admission policy to increase intellectual diversity</p>
<p>As part of President Ruth Simmons’ focus on increasing intellectual diversity on campus, the University unveiled a new recruiting policy Friday, which will target applicants to the college with combined SAT scores below 500 and high school GPAs below 2.0.</p>
<p>“Of students reporting rank, over 90 percent of the Class of 2008 was in the top tenth of their graduating high school class,” Simmons said. “Approximately 85 percent of the class scored above the 75th percentile on the SAT,” she added.</p>
<p>“This is simply embarrassing. How can we expect to have intellectual diversity when we are so clearly discriminating against a significant and relevant portion of the population?” Simmons asked.</p>
<p>Under Simmons’ policy, which she is calling Intellectual diversity Quest (IQ), the Admission Office must admit classes with GPA and SAT scores reflective of national averages by 2008.</p>
<p>Outgoing Director of Admis-sion Michael Goldberger said he was excited by the new policy. “We’ve made significant steps to increase racial diversity and geographical diversity,” Goldberger said, “but we’ve totally neglected the issue of intellectual diversity.”</p>
<p>“By encouraging this kind of diversity of applicants, just think what will happen to our acceptance rate,” Goldberger said.</p>
<p>Prospective students ex-pressed confusion over the new admission policy. “Let me get this straight,” said Steffi Williams, a high school senior from Omaha, Neb., who was waitlisted. “I played the tuba, was captain of the curling team and spent my summer vacation raising ostriches when really I would have gotten the admission officer’s attention by getting a 450 on the SAT?”</p>
<p>“Statistics show that 50 percent of those who take the SAT score below the 50th percentile,” said Professor of Political Science Darrell West, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy.</p>