The Bobcat Nation

Critics Slam Univ. of Oregon Diversity Effort

Tuesday, November 01, 2005



EUGENE, Ore. — In an effort to promote diversity at the University of Oregon (search), a plan has been developed that would hire, fire and promote professors not just on the quality of their teaching and research, but on their so-called “cultural competency."

Freshmen would take a class on the subject and faculty would be trained in it. The problem is that nowhere in the 22-page diversity draft plan is “cultural competency” (search) defined.

"I can imagine huge amounts of time that should be going to research and teaching being tied up with this sort of thing — and making life extremely unpleasant,” said Christopher Phillips, a University of Oregon professor.

Critics also worry about the cost. The plan calls for 800 diversity-building scholarships and dozens of new staff positions in order to add degree programs in fields like “queer studies” and “disabled studies.”

Supporters say they understand the challenges, but such a program is necessary because racism and discrimination persist.

"If we're going to make it our goal to advance our skills around cultural competency, we owe it to each other to have accountability for how we do that," said interim Vice Provost Charles Martinez.

And students are mixed on the school’s diversity initiatives, with some backing them but others complaining that they sometimes go too far.

ALL diversity programs go to far!!!!!!!!! One of the things history has taught us is that when you try and solve the symptom (and not the problem) the problem gets worse. The PROBLEM is that some people are prejudice and/or insensitive. The symptom is that these same people mistreat others who have disabilities or are a minority. We find it difficult to solve the problem so we attach the symptom to appease ourselves and those affected.

Case in point: Some people will not hire minorities because they are prejudice. It would be great to educate people so that no longer occurs. That would be hard and take decades. So we attach the symptom: force companies to hire a higher percentage of minorities. The result, qualified individuals get passed over creating a new group of "prejudice" individuals who were not prejudice before and you speed up a process that naturally would take much longer to create (ie. force companies to have 10% of their management staff be minority within 2-3 years when the work force cannot satisfy this sudden demand because the we have not taken the necessary steps of educating and training these people in advance).

It's the "Land of Opportunity" not the "Land of Entitlement."

As a female engineer, I hated hearing "you'll get a job, don't worry, you're a girl."

We all need some knowledge of diversity in this world. Just look at the Joey Thomas post on the Bobcat Athletics board. But like others have said, sometimes these well-intentioned ideas can lead to more discrimination. MSU has a core "diversity" requirement that all students have to follow. But if you're going to hire someone for a job, it should be based on qualifications.

bozbobcat wrote:We all need some knowledge of diversity in this world. Just look at the Joey Thomas post on the Bobcat Athletics board. But like others have said, sometimes these well-intentioned ideas can lead to more discrimination. MSU has a core "diversity" requirement that all students have to follow. But if you're going to hire someone for a job, it should be based on qualifications.

It should be the case, but isn't always the case even when it's all applicants of the same sex, age, race and qualifications. A good portion of all jobs are doled on based on the buddy system all around the world.

As my college professor so eloquently put it, "...Successful job interviews are nothing more than you liking their (employers) bull**** and they,in turn, liking your bull****."

It's good that things like that stayed with me after college as opposed to all that really important stuff I learned in Math 170.

As my professor so eloquently put it "some of the dumbest people I know are professors, so don't believe anything they tell you."

I'm a firm believer that a requirements-based educational system does not do our country any favors.

Merit-based systems are by far more beneficial to the nation's future.