It's a pretty brilliant approach to drawing attention to their position, and honestly it really isn't all that different than the policy they are against (although it obviously simplifies the issue).
I'm not sure where I fall on the issue to be honest. While I see the need to create diverse environments in order to bring in different view points and cultivate the whole 'academic environment' thing I'm not sure that you do that by creating a situation where race becomes a pretty big factor in admissions. It's a tough situation, people who may have earned a spot with their grades are denied while those who may not have the grades get in. I think it's important that people aren't let in simply because of their skin, but because they bring value. The issue is that it's hard to quantify that and the admissions process, particularly at the undergrad level, doesn't usually lend itself to a more personal approach.
I've often wondered what schools would have done had I just checked off Latino on my applications, are they going to ask for a family tree? Oddly enough I actually could have benefited from the desire of schools to boost their diversity numbers as being Canadian counted but chose to go to a school that I would have easily gotten into regardless. Still think I should have applied to Yale as a Canadian-Latino.
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