On a number of occasions I have discussed (not favorably, as you can imagine) college recruitment and orientation programs that segregate students by race. (Examples: here, here, here, here, here, and most recently here) Now Mount Holyoke College has bravely taken this segregative approach to practicing and preaching “diversity” to its next logical step, as reported this morning at Inside Higher Ed:
Mount Holyoke College, which has for many years had a voluntary program for minority students in advance of the general orientation, plans this year to start a special section at the same time, also voluntary, for white students from the United States. (There is also a mandatory pre-orientation for international students.) Over three and a half days, the white and minority students will spend time separately and together, talking about race, before they join the four-day program for all new students.
But not to worry: the segregation will not be absolute.
…. Elizabeth Braun, dean of students at the college, said that the reality is that that two groups will probably spend more than half of the program time together, but will also have time to meet separately as white and minority students.
“This comes from our larger institutional commitment to diversity, and really figuring out students’ opportunities to engage with that diversity.” (About one third of students at the college are either from outside the United States or are members of minority groups.)
Now, aside from the fact that Mount Holyoke’s “larger institutional commitment to diversity” begins by excluding half the human race (no men allowed), it also is not large enough to include Asians or Hispanics, who are not allowed to have their own separate orientations. I assume Hispanics are lumped to together with blacks as generic “minorities,” but where are Asians lumped?
