Those involved in higher education understand that the admissions process has less to do with rewarding each student's past performance--although high performance is clearly essential--than it does with building a community of diverse learners who will thrive together and teach one another. Reports have noted that many leading public universities are revising recruitment and admissions policies to comply with statewide bans on affirmative action without jeopardizing the diversity of the students who attend their campus. In this article, the author explains why universities are trying so hard to maximize diversity--even though no law requires it, and in several states affirmative action is explicitly forbidden. The author discusses why higher education must not lose the practical and political battles to maintain highly racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse student bodies.