Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Diversity: key to success
And the purpose of trying to increase minority enrollment? The implication is a more diverse campus so as to make minorities feel more comforted and increase expose other students to minority opinions, thoughts, and so forth. And the net result will be a better educated, more well-rounded student body that can compete on an international level.
At least that is what administrators, faculty, and students all want us to believe.
Fittingly, Victor Davis Hanson, from the online WSJ, touched on the topic yesterday. In his article he notes:
Here in the United States and even within our own state and schools, we have workers worried about how they will compete with the inexpensive labor of China; we have students concerned that in 10 years, they will have be re-educated because their speciality has been taken over by someone in a lab in India; and we have the general public scared stiff that they will call up their doctor for information and find out that the person on the other end barely speaks English with an understandable accent.
And yet we rather concern ourselves with the ever-growing importance of campus and workplace diversity than with maintaining our technological and academic supremacy?
Sure Likins preaches on about "Academic Excellence", citing that this year's incoming freshman class has the highest SAT scores, but the University of Arizona's retention rate is deplorable and Arizona grades still are not the greatest.
If it is the UA's goal to remain competitive not only on a national level but also internationally, something needs to happen. And diversity isn't it.
P.S. This becomes even more pertinent as the University of Arizona begins its search for a new president. Many people have declared what they are look for in a new president: a president who will be "mindful" of class availability, the cost of tuition, and the price of textbooks.
But what the UA doesn't need a president blindly committed to the diversity doctrine.
President Likins and others at the UA campus would like everyone to believe that--that diversity is the key to success. After all, there has been a big push in the past 5 years to increase the number of minorities on campus; and, as of this year, the University of Arizona has been successful. According to today's Wildcat: "The freshman class also has a higher percentage of minorities, 27 percent, compared to the UA student body as a whole, which only consists of 25.5 percent minorites."
And the purpose of trying to increase minority enrollment? The implication is a more diverse campus so as to make minorities feel more comforted and increase expose other students to minority opinions, thoughts, and so forth. And the net result will be a better educated, more well-rounded student body that can compete on an international level.
At least that is what administrators, faculty, and students all want us to believe.
Fittingly, Victor Davis Hanson, from the online WSJ, touched on the topic yesterday. In his article he notes:
In the end, why should we care about a few high-flying administrators who feel that diversity is the engine that runs the university? Because the U.S. is struggling in an increasingly competitive world in which Europe, China, Japan and India vie for global talent and national advantage through merit-based higher education. They don't care about the racial make-up of the teams that create breakthrough gene therapies or software programs, but only whether such innovations are valuable and superior to the competition.[HT: Gene Expression]
Here in the United States and even within our own state and schools, we have workers worried about how they will compete with the inexpensive labor of China; we have students concerned that in 10 years, they will have be re-educated because their speciality has been taken over by someone in a lab in India; and we have the general public scared stiff that they will call up their doctor for information and find out that the person on the other end barely speaks English with an understandable accent.
And yet we rather concern ourselves with the ever-growing importance of campus and workplace diversity than with maintaining our technological and academic supremacy?
Sure Likins preaches on about "Academic Excellence", citing that this year's incoming freshman class has the highest SAT scores, but the University of Arizona's retention rate is deplorable and Arizona grades still are not the greatest.
If it is the UA's goal to remain competitive not only on a national level but also internationally, something needs to happen. And diversity isn't it.
P.S. This becomes even more pertinent as the University of Arizona begins its search for a new president. Many people have declared what they are look for in a new president: a president who will be "mindful" of class availability, the cost of tuition, and the price of textbooks.
But what the UA doesn't need a president blindly committed to the diversity doctrine.
posted by Laura Keslar at 11:54 AM | |
