Advertising Ethics

"Attend one of the most open-hearted, open-minded colleges in America."

This is the slogan that greeted me on the Aquinas website when I logged out of my school e-mail account today...

...plastered, no less, next to Jeeps' sunbathed face, a guy who still couldn't get my name right after we both worked as RAs for a year. And I'm pretty sure this whitebread kid is not the shining example of open-mindedness.

I know, I know--tell that to the webpage designer or the marketing specialist. Who cares about Jeeps' personal diversity ethic.

But what about Aquinas?

Maybe if the tagline read, "one of the most open-minded private colleges in West Michigan"...

But in America?

Sure, one could amass a list of institutions that are far more snobbish, bigoted, and single-minded. Just look up any Ivy League school, or take a drive down the East Beltline, for that matter.

And I did originally come to Aquinas because it seemed so much more welcoming than some of these.

But in light of recent events, a new policy, and a diversity statement with glaring silences, I'm not so sure. This statement, with which I once might have mildly agreed, now seems to whitewash the truth, to carry a hidden seed of hypocrisy I find unsettling.