Can we still afford this nonsense?

[thebin]

www.city-journal.org/2011/cjc0714hm.html

While tuition and student debt continues to skyrocket and academic standards continue to crash....more diversity programs please.

And this nonsense occurs at what is (still) one of the best public university systems on the planet. Inane left-wing bureaucratic politburos continue to thrive while academic programs are being strangled of oxygen. Inexcusable.

Just when I think my disgust at the prominence in the GOP of the religious right has pushed me firmly into the American left, I'm reminded of how sill and dogmatic they can be in their own extraordinarily self-referential way.

This is but a small portion of very important piece:



"California’s budget crisis has reduced the University of California to near-penury, claim its spokesmen. “Our campuses and the UC Office of the President already have cut to the bone,” the university system’s vice president for budget and capital resources warned earlier this month, in advance of this week’s meeting of the university’s regents. Well, not exactly to the bone. Even as UC campuses jettison entire degree programs and lose faculty to competing universities, one fiefdom has remained virtually sacrosanct: the diversity machine.

Not only have diversity sinecures been protected from budget cuts, their numbers are actually growing. The University of California at San Diego, for example, is creating a new full-time “vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion.” This position would augment UC San Diego’s already massive diversity apparatus, which includes the Chancellor’s Diversity Office, the associate vice chancellor for faculty equity, the assistant vice chancellor for diversity, the faculty equity advisors, the graduate diversity coordinators, the staff diversity liaison, the undergraduate student diversity liaison, the graduate student diversity liaison, the chief diversity officer, the director of development for diversity initiatives, the Office of Academic Diversity and Equal Opportunity, the Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Issues, the Committee on the Status of Women, the Campus Council on Climate, Culture and Inclusion, the Diversity Council, and the directors of the Cross-Cultural Center, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center, and the Women’s Center.

It’s not surprising that the new vice chancellor’s mission is rather opaque, given its superfluity. According to outgoing UCSD chancellor Marye Anne Fox, the new VC for EDI “will be responsible for building on existing diversity plans to develop and implement a campus-wide strategy on equity, diversity and inclusion.” UCSD has been churning out such diversity strategies for years. The “campus-wide strategy on equity, diversity and inclusion” that the new hire will supposedly produce differs from its predecessors only in being self-referential: it will define the very scope of the VC’s duties and the number of underlings he will command. “The strategic plan,” says Fox, “will inform the final organizational structure for the office of the VC EDI, will propose metrics to gauge progress, and will identify potential additional areas of responsibility.”

What a boon for a taxpayer-funded bureaucrat, to be able to define his own portfolio and determine how many staff lines he will control! UC Berkeley’s own vice chancellor for equity and inclusion shows how voracious a diversity apparatchik’s appetite for power can be. Gibor Basri has 17 people working for him in his immediate office, including a “chief of staff,” two “project/policy analysts,” and a “director of special projects.” The funding propping up Basri’s vast office could support many an English or history professor. According to state databases, Basri’s base pay in 2009 was $194,000, which does not include a variety of possible add-ons, including summer salary and administrative stipends. By comparison, the official salary for assistant professors at UC starts at around $53,000. Add to Basri’s salary those of his minions, and you’re looking at more than $1 million a year.

UC San Diego is adding diversity fat even as it snuffs out substantive academic programs. In March, the Academic Senate decided that the school would no longer offer a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering; it also eliminated a master’s program in comparative literature and courses in French, German, Spanish, and English literature. At the same time, the body mandated a new campus-wide diversity requirement for graduation. The cultivation of “a student’s understanding of her or his identity,” as the diversity requirement proposal put it, would focus on “African Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, Chicanos, Latinos, Native Americans, or other groups” through the “framework” of “race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality, language, ability/disability, class or age.” Training computer scientists to compete with the growing technical prowess of China and India, apparently, can wait. More pressing is guaranteeing that students graduate from UCSD having fully explored their “identity.” Why study Cervantes, Voltaire, or Goethe when you can contemplate yourself? “Diversity,” it turns out, is simply a code word for narcissism."

[kchoya]

Even if you are inclined to believe the in the importance of "diversity," you have to admit this is overkill:

This position would augment UC San Diego’s already massive diversity apparatus, which includes the Chancellor’s Diversity Office, the associate vice chancellor for faculty equity, the assistant vice chancellor for diversity, the faculty equity advisors, the graduate diversity coordinators, the staff diversity liaison, the undergraduate student diversity liaison, the graduate student diversity liaison, the chief diversity officer, the director of development for diversity initiatives, the Office of Academic Diversity and Equal Opportunity, the Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Issues, the Committee on the Status of Women, the Campus Council on Climate, Culture and Inclusion, the Diversity Council, and the directors of the Cross-Cultural Center, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center, and the Women’s Center.

[Boz]

I can't imagine more cushy, protected jobs anywhere (except in DC).

Where can I apply for one of these?


Dammit!! I'm a white male. Probably not qualified.

[thebin]

What is so alarming to me is that UC San Diego is the worst type of place to see this tripe. It is a truly world class university that really was not about athletics (d2 despite 30K students), social/greek life (it is a far more boring of a campus than a public school in La Jolla has a right to be) or to the proliferation of the newer social sciences but was dedicated instead to the physical sciences. (I took a couple of classes there in the summer between Gtown years.) If this nonsense can thrive at a premier science-based research university like like UCSD, I shudder to think of how bad it has become at lesser colleges and universities where the rise of ever more Grievance Studies have been degrading academic standards for far longer.

For those outside of California, UCSD has always been a hidden gem that was science driven. To see such a public gem kill off their computer and electrical engineering masters programs while adding a 7th or 8th diversity office doesn't bode well for our future vs China or India. From Wikipedia... The University of California, San Diego is currently ranked 14th in the world and 12th nationally by the Academic Ranking of World Universities.... In 2010 and 2011, the university ranked 1st nationally in The Washington Monthly.[39] The Graham-Diamond report ranked UCSD 8th overall in the country.[41] UCSD was selected as the "Hottest" science school by Newsweek in 2006.[42] Human Resources & Labor Review ranked the university 16th worldwide in 2010.[43

[thebin]

By the way....Do you want to know how hideously and oppressively Caucasian UCSD's student body is to demand throwing more public money at more diversity jobs programs while academic programs are shut down? It must be like Yale in the 1950s right? Just all WASPS coming from money with the occasional Catholic or Jew. So just how white is UCSD these days? 24% caucasian. Yep- less than a quarter. UCSD is already almost 60% non-white. Of course most of those are the wrong kind of non-Caucasians for the Diversity Industry. And you know how those first generation Asian Americans need the thought police to tell them how to ignore the massive privilege they no doubt came from and show them how to live in a diverse country. That's a much more important educational mission than say offering graduate work in computer engineering.

[jgalt]

Oh dont even get me started. All they talk about here in CA is this crap. One week its students protesting rising tuitions. The next its teachers threatening to strike over cut wages and lay offs. These two issues cant both be resolved together (well without a tax I suppose). The UC system is broken. Its too big and it trying to be everything to everyone, which we know is impossible. You can only please so many people by going with the least common denominator, hence why they cut programs.

Also heres some data about UC SDs diversity in student populations:

studentresearch.ucsd.edu/sriweb/enroll/ugethnic.pdf

If by diversity they mean non-white, well they are doing a pretty good job: Caucasian enrollment as a percentage of total enrollment is down 16% over the past decade.

[thebin]

This is the question that can never be asked but I'll go for it. Now that the percentage of white students students at UCSD means they are massively under-represented as regards the state average, what efforts are underway to reverse that? Since the state is 40% non-hispanic white, what are the plans to rectify that statistical abberation to make UCSD look more like California?

Or to ask the real question...are whites and asian-Americans the only groups that the Diversity industry has on its blacklist for academic protection? (If you don't know how much harder it is for Asian Americans to get into the best colleges in the US you are not paying attention in any way to this issue.) Are there others? I mean that as an honest question. I'd like to know who else doesn't qualify for their protection/promotion. Can first generation Russian-Americans get in on this action? I mean really really poor ones with Dickensian childhoods filled with terror? Probably not, too darn pale. What about a blond arsitocrat from Spain but with the last name Diaz? Maybe. Is there a criteria list for who gets favored-citizen status or are we just supposed to shut up and let them re-distribute academic opportunities in this country with their $200K/year cushy jobs based on something as vile as bloodlines and color rather than academic merit?

[jgalt]

I agree with you Bin. One of the most dangerous parts of "Diversity" initiatives is that diversity is rarely defined concretely. Is it racial diversity that is desirable? Ethnic? Socio-Economic? Im sure many would say a combination of all three and maybe more factors. But then when do you know you have succeeded? Surely there must be a point at which a group of people is "diverse". Though that would entail some sort of numerical standard bordering on a quota system which many would find abhorrent.

There is one way in which schools will never be diverse: intellectually. Can Cal Tech truly be diverse if everyone there is near genius level in math and science. Many would argue that this is the point of a university, but there are studies which point to lower IQs actually being bennificial when it comes to some critical thinking challenges: individuals with lower IQs will approach problems with a clear mind because they don't think they know what to do, while those with higher IQs will think themselves smart enough to accomplish the problem but be blinded by this bias (basically intellectual hubris). So maybe intellectual diversity would be beneficial to a university, but then the sham that is admissions based on solely academic merit would collapse.

I guess what Id like to see is some honest when it comes to programs. If you have a diversity program, define what it means. If its racial equity that you desire than say so. Its ok to say "we want to increase african american enrollment". There is nothing inherently wrong about that as long as you are honest that that is you intent. Coach Thompson was never afraid to say honestly that he was taking underprivileged black players because he wanted to give them an opportunity. And it worked, most of his players greatly benefitted from the education they received at Georgetown.

[SoCalHoya]

While I agree that diversity programs suffer from extreme bloat, what university/admin budget doesn't? I'm not sure we're appreciating the complexity of the issues.

[RusskyHoya]

Jun 21, 2012 15:41:10 GMT -5 SoCalHoya said:

I'm not sure we're appreciating the complexity of the issues.

Understatement of the decade right there. But I don't think we can expect any different from people who throw around terms like "Grievance Studies," "Diversity Industry," "thought police," "blacklist for academic protection," etc. No one's mind is going to be changed here.

For the record, though - I don't think anyone claims that there is "admissions based on solely academic merit." Find me a school that doesn't privilege the children of alumni, donors, the well-connected, athletes, and other targeted populations. Georgetown certainly does not claim any such thing.

If anyone is actually interested in a substantive discussion of admissions policies, I'm sure there could be some productive exchange of ideas, especially if Jack were to chime in. But if someone is coming to the discussion with an attitude of "why don't you just admit that all the blacks are stupider," then it's probably best for all parties to just save their breath.

[TC]

How many people were enrolled in the graduate MS in Computer Engineering program? What percentage of those were US-based students?

A ton of the chip maker jobs have gone overseas, so I'm not sure what kind of market a person with MS in CE/EE rather than CS faces. My bet is that this was a dollars and cents decision - how can you argue with what the market wants?

[Boz]

If you don't believe strike that, KNOW that diversity is, in fact, an industry -- in academia, in the public sector and in the private sector -- you are unbelievably naive.

"Green" is an industry too, by the way. And I'm not talking about people who build solar panels. I'm talking about the "green police," the certification organizations and other similar entities.

I do value diversity in all sectors. Not for PC sake, but for the genuine added value it generates and opportunities provided (be nice if universities strove for diversity in thought as much as they do diversity in other areas though).

I also, while not being a global warming alarmist, value many of the sensible sustainability and environmentally responsible practices businesses take.

But make no mistake. These ARE industries, interested in making money and/or acquiring power for their own benefit as much as any other.

[RusskyHoya]

If you want to use so broad a definition, that's perfectly fine. But under that rubric it would be fair to say that there is a pretty big "God industry" as well, with quite a few men and women of the cloth fitting those same criteria of making money and/or acquiring power for their own benefit, even though they also believe what they preach. If everything that accrues power and influence is an industry, then sure.

[FormerHoya]

Jun 21, 2012 16:00:33 GMT -5 RusskyHoya said:

Jun 21, 2012 15:41:10 GMT -5 SoCalHoya said:

I'm not sure we're appreciating the complexity of the issues.

I'm sure there could be some productive exchange of ideas, especially if Jack were to chime in.

a) This is the internet, there are no productive exchanges of ideas.
b) Jack has his hands full right now.

[jgalt]

I view the real problem being that an extremely cash strapped institution like the UC system is hiring people at very high wages for programs that dont directly lead to greater admissions of students. If Basri's pay was more inline with what the average teacher is paid there wouldnt really be a problem.

[Nevada Hoya]

Jun 21, 2012 16:04:43 GMT -5 TC said:

How many people were enrolled in the graduate MS in Computer Engineering program? What percentage of those were US-based students?

A ton of the chip maker jobs have gone overseas, so I'm not sure what kind of market a person with MS in CE/EE rather than CS faces. My bet is that this was a dollars and cents decision - how can you argue with what the market wants?

My son has a BS in EE (Univ of Portland), an MS in Computer Engineering (WSU - first ever to get that degree in the state of Washington) and has a great job at Intel in Folsom, CA.

[Nevada Hoya]

My wife is a tutor in math at UNLV and she hates these touchy-feely programs that the university has set up, even in the tutorinig center.

[TC]

The Graduate Council asked for, and received, approval to disestablish (discontinue) several programs in response to budgetary pressures: a terminal master of arts in comparative literature, and courses in French, German, Spanish and English literatures that have seen very sparse enrollments. A master of engineering degree in electrical and computer engineering was also disestablished due to "decreased enrollments and recent re-establishment of admission to the Master of Science program."

So basically it was a redundant program with low enrollment. Not understanding how offering a MS rather than a ME means that "training computer scientists to compete with the growing technical prowess of China and India, apparently, can wait".

Nevada Hoya - congrats to your son! That's great!

[RusskyHoya]

Jun 21, 2012 18:15:12 GMT -5 jgalt said:

I view the real problem being that an extremely cash strapped institution like the UC system is hiring people at very high wages for programs that dont directly lead to greater admissions of students. If Basri's pay was more inline with what the average teacher is paid there wouldnt really be a problem.

It is absolutely fair and necessary to scrutinize senior hiring decisions and university funding priorities, especially during periods of resource scarcity. To fairly gauge that, though, we'd need more information: a statement of the administration's rationale, knowing whether or not some of these programs and positions are directly endowed (as GU's Doyle Engaging Difference Initiative is, for instance) and the money is non-fungible, and so on.

I understand that there are people who think that any money spent on diversity programming (or other "touchy-feeling programs," as Nevada put it) is money wasted. I don't agree, obviously, but I am also big on accountability and justifying your expenditures. Simply compiling a laundry list of diversity-related things at a University and going 'lol look at all this nonsense' isn't a compelling argument to me, though, and it doesn't advance our understanding of anything. One might as well look at Georgetown and say "What? There's an Asian Students Association AND a Chinese Students Association? What a waste of money!"

[Boz]

Jun 21, 2012 16:21:28 GMT -5 RusskyHoya said:

If you want to use so broad a definition, that's perfectly fine. But under that rubric it would be fair to say that there is a pretty big "God industry" as well, with quite a few men and women of the cloth fitting those same criteria of making money and/or acquiring power for their own benefit, even though they also believe what they preach. If everything that accrues power and influence is an industry, then sure.

I would never make the case that religion is not an industry.

But at the same time, I don't think any schools in the UC system have 27 different vice chancellors for God.

EDIT: Also, congratulations, Jack!