This paper discusses the failure of the University of Washington to formulate a policy regarding the establishment of a Cultural and Ethnic Diversity (CED) course requirement for undergraduates despite nine years of efforts to do so, tracing the efforts to establish a CED requirement, along with the arguments for and against such a requirement. It first examines the activities of key constituencies in the process through a rational perspective focus, noting the irrational behavior of certain constituencies. The paper then looks at the process from an organizational process perspective, explaining how different groups work for the benefit of the university while at the same time are in total opposition on the CED issue. A normative view of the CED process focuses on the values embodied in the policy actions that different groups chose. The paper concludes that, taken together, these three perspectives substantially illuminate a very complex series of events. (MDM)