The Onion on College "Diversity"
Saying that such a dialogue was essential to the college’s academic mission, Trescott University president Kevin Abrams confirmed Monday that the school encourages a lively exchange of one idea. “As an institution of higher learning, we recognize that it’s inevitable that certain contentious topics will come up from time to time, and when they do, we want to create an atmosphere where both students and faculty feel comfortable voicing a single homogeneous opinion,” said Abrams, adding that no matter the subject, anyone on campus is always welcome to add their support to the accepted consensus.
Universities are, if anything, institutions based on ideas and thought. So it has always been amazing to me that university diversity programs focus not on having a diversity of ideas, but on have a diversity of skin pigment and reproductive plumbing. In fact, if anything, most universities seem to be aspiring towards creating an intellectual monoculture.
Mark Vargo:
Clearly, you have not read the companion piece: "Disagreement as Micro-aggression."
April 27, 2015, 2:44 pmrandian:
Parody as truth. I love it.
April 27, 2015, 5:51 pmJames:
Diversity just means "no white males". Large companies have for a while been "focusing on diversity" in hiring, which pretty much means white males need not apply. Some companies even already have populations of ethnicities that dwarf the local proportions, and still focus on diversity.
I know of one company that goes to extra-great lengths to hire women. If there is a position open within a department, and they hire a woman, that position is not taken up but rather remains open for them to hire yet another person. Of course, if they hire a man, the position will be filled and no longer available.
April 27, 2015, 8:31 pmirandom419:
Agreed, but I would describe that type of diversity as nothing more than using people as wallpaper.
April 27, 2015, 10:37 pmSamWah:
Oh, no. Disagreement is a Macro-aggression!
April 28, 2015, 10:45 amJ K Brown:
Milton had the answer, "the desire to learn". Ever sense the universities and the Liberal Arts/Humanities students gave up that desire, there has been no need for argument, writing, or a variety of opinions.
“Where there is much desire to learn, here of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinions in good men is but knowledge in the making.”
--John Milton
April 30, 2015, 7:31 am