University "Diversity"
Universities are, at their core, institutions based on knowledge and ideas. So of course, when they define diversity, they make no mention of knowledge or ideas but instead focus on skin pigmentation, reproductive plumbing, and preference in sexual partners. All the while, actual diversity of ideas, at least as measured by political affiliation, has gone down. For libertarians and conservatives, most would argue this understates the decline and would argue actual tolerance for non-left-of-center ideas has declined even faster than this chart would indicate. (via Kevin Drum)
davesmith001:
"If 95% of applicants are liberal, and 95% of admitted people are liberal, then there is no discrimination."
I wonder if he'd make the same argument for Engineering in the context of Male/Female?
January 11, 2016, 12:05 pmOnlooker from Troy:
You beat me to it (at least a similar remark re: women in certain fields).
January 11, 2016, 12:08 pmOnlooker from Troy:
"And now to end on a griping note: I would be a lot more sympathetic to
conservative complaints about the academy if they showed an equal
concern about fields that lean heavily conservative (big business, the
military, etc.). For some reason, though, that never seems to strike
them as a problem. Why?"
I sure seems to me that this is apples to oranges.
January 11, 2016, 12:09 pmkidmugsy:
"when they define diversity, they make no mention of knowledge or ideas": they are very diverse in knowledge. Why, they teach not only engineering and medicine, but also social science. And "Studies".
January 11, 2016, 12:53 pmNot Sure:
The current university definition of diversity is "things I'm not opposed to."
January 11, 2016, 2:07 pmCraig Loehle:
I would suggest that many academics who self-report as "moderate" are actually pretty far left, because they view themselves as reasonable people, which makes them moderates, even if they vote Democrat, support the dept educ policies on kangaroo courts of sexual assault, etc. Likewise, even the university version of a conservative may not be that conservative.
January 12, 2016, 10:04 amDavid in Michigan:
With the rise in "Victim Studies" (many variations of Women and Gender studies, African American studies, social studies, etc) and "Meaningless Studies" (International Relations, Communications, Psychology, etc) it is no surprise that more and more PhD s want to insure their future as they have none outside of academia. Indeed, they will become administrators as well as rent seeking professors. They will be selective in what they teach and who they hire. The system, once underway, is self fulfilling.
That said, why does anyone go to Mother Jones for intellectual stimulation? The site is predictable in content and without merit. (Kevin Drum included ..... since someone in an earlier post claimed that he was an exception to the rule.)
January 13, 2016, 6:28 am