Because colleges and universities perform. such a wide variety of roles, some educators complain that their institutions are expected to meet the needs of too many competing interests. For example, business and government leaders count on colleges and universities to provide occupational training for individuals to enter professional and public life. However, most people also expect colleges and universities to provide students with a broad-based liberal arts foundation of learning that may have no direct vocational application. Accordingly, some critics of the curriculum offered by contem porary institutions of higher education argue for the establishment of educational standards that would combine academic and vocational objectives. Others defend the separation of academic and vocational curriculums. Admissions standards at colleges and universities have become controversial among educators and students alike. Although some institutions of higher education in the United States and Canada have highly selective admissions standards, others admit virtually any high school graduate able to meet minimum academic requirements. Many educators feel that every student should complete high school and that everyone desiring access to higher education should have an opportunity to pursue a college degree. However, critics of loose admissions standards argue that admitting large numbers of students who are academically unprepared for a college education often compromises the quality of the institution. Moreover, from the 1970s to the 1990s grade point averages have risen steadily at nearly all U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities, causing many educators and even some students to complain that acaidemic standards are too low. Since passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, colleges and universities in the United States have carried out debates over affirmative action policies intended to diversify the racial composition of students and faculty. These policies influence student admission guidelines, financial aid distribution, and faculty hiring procedures by giving some preference to minority groups. In the 1990s several judicial decisions began to abolish affirmnative action programs at state-controlled universities. These decisions also imposed legislation to prohibit race-based preferences in college admissions, financial aid, and hiring. These decisions have far-reaching consequences and potentially impactthe efforts of all colleges and universities to achieve racial diversity while consistent with the law. In addition to calls for a more diverse student body and faculty, many educators and students advocate a more diverse Undergraduate curriculum at colleges and universities. Arguing that traditional college curriculums focus too much on the history and culture of white males, they advocate a more multicultural curriculum that does not ignore women and minority cultures. Others argued that advocates of a multicultural curriculum are constrained by their own narrow ideo logical perspectives, and that they do not like the traditional moral, intellectual, and aesthetic judgment. These tradition alists argue for an undergraduate curriculum that emphasizes a core of knowledge that lies within the Western, cultural tradition. Most colleges and universities in the United States and Canada offer some courses that focus on traditional Western culture in addition to others that explore multicultural themes. According to the first paragraph, the author wants to tell us that______.