next »

[whoami]

I came across this article and thought it might be interesting to hear discussion about, so I'll at least briefly delurk.
<http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/04/20/colgate>
The idea behind the dean's position at Colgate University is that in making faculty hires, perhaps diversity of faculty might be more important than diversity of subfield within a department.  So is it more important that a faculty be broady diverse by race, gender, orientation, whatever else might be judged to be diverse, or that the faculty have a broad coverage of topics within a department.  I imagine that diversity of faculty is a little easier at a larger school where you can have some overlap between faculty interests, but I wonder how this works at a small school with only a handful of faculty in each deparment.  It seems it could breed some resentment between the overlapping faculty.
Anyway, it seemed like an interesting idea worth seeing some discussion of.

[beacon1]

Such a silly term is diversity in the first place. It implies that there is some inherent goodness in achieving diversity. Who says there is? Where is the demonstrative proof?

[margomcp]

Such a silly term is diversity in the first place. It implies that there is some inherent goodness in achieving diversity. Who says there is? Where is the demonstrative proof?

I was going to say diversity in what way?  Someone raised in California may be quite a different creature from someone raised in New York City whereas someone a "different" color may not be "diverse" at all, just have different colored skin. 

I worked for a white woman in her wealthy home in the suburbs (complete with husband and 2 children) who was an expert on French West African poetry.  She didn't strike me as "diverse" and I don't know that I'd find a French West African poet diverse either in the right subfield?

Presumably the faculty is larger and broader than a subfield and could have an influence on hiring the subfield so I'd do the faculty if I had to and let the subfield take care of itself.

[me2hican]

Is diversity a virtue or a condition?

[tenured_feminist]

We do diversity because the Supreme Court says we aren't allowed to notice the history and institutional effects of state-imposed racial subordination.

[beacon1]

We do diversity because the Supreme Court says we aren't allowed to notice the history and institutional effects of state-imposed racial subordination.

So using the term diversity skirts around the Supreme Court decision. The illegality of your actions are justified by your own self righteous morality.

[allbutfoundajob]

Look at the Supreme Court decision on the use of race in college admissions a few years ago involving UM undergrads and UM law school.  Basically it came down to wether or not the quotas, percentages or points were written down or not.  If the quota or points for a certain skin color is written down, then it is apparently unConstitutional.  If however, the quota is not written down and instead called a critical mass percentage of people with a certain skin color, then it is apparently Constitutional.

[tenured_feminist]

Uh, beacon? Please have a look at <i>Bakke</i>. Diversity was the Supreme Court's idea, not mine.

[joey_fan]

Huh? This article (and the policy) seem full of contradictions and false dichotomies. Everyone involved (college and the article-author) seem to presume that diversity/coverage is an "either/or" situation. I thought diversity and coverage were mutually supporting...?

I came across this article and thought it might be interesting to hear discussion about, so I'll at least briefly delurk.
<http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/04/20/colgate>
The idea behind the dean's position at Colgate University is that in making faculty hires, perhaps diversity of faculty might be more important than diversity of subfield within a department.  So is it more important that a faculty be broady diverse by race, gender, orientation, whatever else might be judged to be diverse, or that the faculty have a broad coverage of topics within a department.  I imagine that diversity of faculty is a little easier at a larger school where you can have some overlap between faculty interests, but I wonder how this works at a small school with only a handful of faculty in each deparment.  It seems it could breed some resentment between the overlapping faculty.
Anyway, it seemed like an interesting idea worth seeing some discussion of.