Discriminations

Last June I wrote:

If there were a prize for the most ridiculous rationale for racial discrimination, it would surely go to the University of Oregon.

I was referring to the university’s almost hilarious defense of its “Underrepresented Minority Recruitment Program,” under which departments are rewarded handsomely for hiring ethnically “underrepresened” applicants.

According to economics professor Bill Harbaugh, I noted,

the startup package for a new, nonminority faculty member in the economics department typically would total about $7,000 over the first three years. A faculty member in the minority recruitment program could get up to $97,000, he said.

The university’s explanation of why this blatant racial favoritism is not illegal was, well, entertaining:

Provost Linda Brady and general counsel Melinda Grier said the program, which helps new minority faculty set up an office or lab, is legal and needed to help attract minority faculty in a competitive market....

The funds come into play after a selection committee has chosen a candidate and made an initial job offer. The funds then can be used to negotiate a final contract, [Grier] said....

The funds come into play after a selection committee has chosen a candidate and made an initial job offer. The funds then can be used to negotiate a final contract, she said.

The money goes to the professor's department, not to the professor, she said.

“Dollars aren't allocated based on race,” she said. “Departments get reimbursed for costs.”

Now it appears the Department of Justice is not amused.

“The Department of Justice has information that the University of Oregon may be engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful discrimination against newly hired non-minority faculty members with respect to the disbursement of salary and other employment benefits via its ‘Underrepresented Minority Recruitment Program,’” according to a letter sent to University General Counsel Melinda Grier that is signed by David Palmer, chief of the employment litigation section of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The university is sticking by its story that rewarding departments for hiring minorities, some of which reward almost always goes to the minority in question, involves no discrimination against non-minorities.

According to university president David Frohnmayer, the program has “been carefully examined by our legal council [sic] over a number of years. We’ve made reasonable judgment that it is defensible.” (Almost anything is defensible; whether it’s legal or not is another matter.) The university counsel also trotted out the same old argument:

University General Counsel Grier also defended UMRP’s legality in a four-page letter she sent to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The program “is designed to help the University of Oregon diversify its workforce and to help UO meet its obligations under state and federal law,” Grier wrote. “The UMRP does not provide benefits to individuals based on their race or ethnicity. Rather, under the UMRP, departments are reimbursed for the expenses they incur in recruiting and hiring individuals or for general department activities where the hiring of the individual would help to eliminate an underutilization.”

How odd to think of the University of Oregon “underutilizing,” say, black philosophers or Hispanic (not, mind you, Guatemalan or Cuban or Puerto Rican) chemical engineers. And how refreshing it would be if the Department of Justice were to take seriously the requirements of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting institutions from making distinctions based on race in the terms, conditions, privileges, or benefits of employment.