Diversity of thought, discipline, race, gender, sexuality etc. are extremely cardinal to the progress of a school, company, or any institution. The advantages are well researched and documented in this article. However, as I was reading this article I started to think about some questions (that I don’t have answers to):
- Are there any downsides or cons of diversity? (intuition says no)
- Do company’s/ institutions loose on talent while trying to meet their diversity quota?
- Does the entire concept of having a diversity quota beneficial or detrimental?
- When an institution “markets” its diversity numbers, does that have any psychological implications on the “diverse” individual — maybe self doubt (Do I really deserve to be here or am I just here to meet the diversity criteria?)
These are very convoluted questions. I’d appreciate peoples input on what they think.
vibhavnanda 
These are good question Vibhav. I know that the issues around “quota” have morphed into very complex phenomena in some countries and the question is way more nuanced than just “are reservations good or bad”. I would, however, point that in many cases the goal is equal opportunity and not dismissing people based on their gender, race, and age.
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Totally agreed. It is definitely a good theoretical idea, but maybe the essence of quotas and reservations are lost in practice?
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I liked your fourth point: “When an institution “markets” its diversity numbers, does that have any psychological implications on the “diverse” individual — maybe self doubt (Do I really deserve to be here or am I just here to meet the diversity criteria?)”. I guess you have a strong point here. Being honest, for many times I have asked this question to myself and for many times i really feel I have been accepted just because of diversity criteria!
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