A Useful Reminder About Affirmative Action

It is often alleged that the importance of racial preferences in higher education is exaggerated since such a small percentage of American colleges have selective admissions policies.

That point, while true, ignores all the racial preferences in hiring, both of faculty and staff, engaged in by colleges large and small, selective and open. And this discriminatory hiring has apparently become an issue at Austin Community College in Texas, where 28 year conservative activist Marc Levin is in a runoff election for a seat on the board of trustees.

“I want to make sure ACC doesn’t discriminate, and it should cast a wide net in looking for candidates, and should recruit from historically black colleges,” said Levin. “But I don’t support preferential treatment in hiring and promotion. It creates hostility and animosity among faculty and staff.”

To preferentialists who point out that “only” 19% of ACC’s faculty is minority compared to 37% of its students (and 50% of Austin’s population), Levin replies that “the percentage of blacks and Hispanics in the student population is irrelevant anyway; what matters … is the percentage of blacks and Hispanics in the hiring pool of PhDs.”

This stance “worries some faculty,” who fear the impact a turn toward non-discrimination would have on “diversity.”

Say What?