Judging by article in today’s Daily Tar Heel, the recent Race Relations Week at UNC left everybody feeling good about “diversity” but nobody knowing quite what it was.
Some representative comments follow, followed in turn by my comments.
Sheena Oxendine, a Native American undergraduate:
… now that she is one of the 221 Native Americans who attend UNC, she’s noticed that the University community still has many steps to take before bridging the gap between diverse populations.
“There is still a separation in the Pit,” said Oxendine, a student member of the newly formed Chancellor’s Task Force on Diversity. “If you don’t put yourself out there, the campus won’t celebrate you.”
Should universities “celebrate” students based on their race, ethnicity, etc.?
After a week of events targeting race relations, the question of what the term diversity means still is under review.
Although UNC promotes diversity through student organizations, some students say they feel like the campus is socially separated.
Well, duh. If you celebrate and subsidize difference, what you get is groups based on their differences.
Director of Admissions Steve Farmer said his office tries to create a diverse environment on campus.
“We do use affirmative action when admitting students,” Farmer said. “It means that we try to take into account students’ backgrounds, and we try to understand fully the contributions that they might make to the University and the way they could benefit from the University.”
Here is a good example of the problem of euphemism, an inability or at least refusal to use plain talk to describe what actually is being done. “We use affirmative action,” we “take into account student backgrounds” are simply polite ways of saying we give give preferences based on race and ethnicity.
When recruiting students to UNC, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Office for Minority Affairs work to portray the University as a good choice for students from all walks of life.
“We convey the message that everyone who has met the academic record are [sic] welcome here,” said Archie Ervin, director of minority affairs and chairman of the task force. “It is very important to us to make that very clear.”
Another good example euphemistic double speak. Too bad, Archie, because what you said is anything but clear. UNC is selective. That means that “everyone who has met the academic record” (whatever that may mean) is NOT welcome to come. I’m sure that UNC, like UVa and other selective public universities, turns away many applicants who have, er, “met the academic record.” I’m sure that those who are preferentially admitted because of their race or ethnicity have “met the academic record,” but, depending on the extent of the preference, I’m also sure that many of those of unpreferred races and ethnicities who are turned away have met more of it.
The task force is wrestling with the question “What is diversity?” so that it can identify problems on campus and create a more responsive atmosphere.
“Many people I talk to immediately think of race, ethnicity and gender factors,” Ervin said. “Looking from an institute’s perspective, we’ve got to be more broad than that.”
Looks to me like the question won this wrestling match hands down. Archie, wake up! The reason “many people” “immediately think” of race and ethnicity when they hear “diversity” is because you give race and ethnicity preferences in admission and hiring. If you want diversity to be “more broad than that,” you need to change your preference policies.
“No two people are alike,” Ervin said. “Accommodating differences like language, customs and traditions are some [sic] of the biggest ways we promote the understanding of difference.”
And how does the university accomodate differences in language, culture, and traditions? Call me old-fashioned, but it seems to me that the university should be primarily concerned with teaching and research, and less with celebrating and accomodating differences among its students.
“Diversity is not just race-based. It’s culture, ethnicity, it’s your background,” said Erika Barrera, a student member of the task force. “I think the ability to embrace diversity is what we as students need to do to advance race relations.”
Apparently diversity of opinion doesn’t make the list.
Erin Davis, president of the Black Student Movement and a member of the task force, said people too often associate diversity with race and not with culture.
“One of the problems is that (diversity) had become a code word for race,” she said. “It can be from gender, class, sexual identity, religion. I think diversity is different from whatever the norm is.”
There those people go again, associating “diversity” with race only because the university gives race-based preferences to create diversity. Boy are they dumb. (Incidentally, the Daily Tar Heel staff writer or editor would seem to be similarly confused, since the article being quoted here is titled “Minorities Strieve To Define Identity.” “Diversity,” that suggests, concerns only minorities.)
But Erin is on to something here. How can UNC promote a diversity of sexual identity if it doesn’t know the sexual identity of its applicants? Perhaps applicants should be required to state their sexual identity in order for administrators to make sure all varieties are proportionally represented.
I would say they may run into some Constitutional obstacles in extending preferences to applciants who adhere (or say they adhere on the required religious preference question) to underrepresented religions, but then it hasn’t been so long when I would have said that public agencies engaging in racial preferences also would have encountered such problems. And hey, if race can be preferred,why not religion? (Search this site for race and sects to find many discussions of this point.)
The professoriate, and those more directly under its influence uses diversity also by way of analogy to species diversity. The dominant species are those which tend to drive the diversity towards total or local extinction. This analogy implies competition for resources, with the diversity in a relation to the dominant, as endangered species are to the superior competitors. Endangered, or academically endangered, minorities are then the diversity which one is expected to value, just as society may acquire the impulse to value endangered species. There is a danger here, though, in treating human sub-groups as species in conflict with the commonalty.