thehappyconservative

I made the mistake of reading StudLife, our campus newspaper. They refuse to publish my articles, because I do not meet their rigorous standards for journalistic excellence. Consider excerpts from the following article:

In response to a reaccreditation report calling for an improved level of diversity on the Washington University campus, the University has formed the Coordinating Council for Diversity Initiatives, a group devoted to the issue of diversity and gender equity in faculty and administrative positions.

Wrighton explained that a University-wide effort is being made to recruit women and minorities to senior positions within the administration. Under the purview of Leah Merrifield, chair of this council and special assistant to the chancellor on diversity, the University conducts recruiting workshops intended to ensure that qualified individuals from a variety of backgrounds are considered throughout the hiring process.

“Recruiting and retaining faculty of the quality we seek, majority or minority, is a challenge, because the competition is very keen. Every search for a new faculty member involves an effort to draw women and members of minority groups in to the pool of candidates,” Wrighton wrote.

The University has made extensive progress in student body diversity, and Wrighton says the University is modeling its efforts on this successful initiative. Some students expressed the opinion that the University campus is diverse but could improve, which reflects the results of the accreditation.

Senior Ruth Poland said she believes that the diverse groups within the student body should be more integrated.

“It is diverse but segregated. I think it’s as diverse as the next private school campus, but I think that it’s certainly not better. I think there’s lots of room for improvement,” Poland said.

Senior Laelle Busch echoed this feeling and also says that the student body could be more integrated.

“I feel there’s a large contingent of ethnic groups staying within their ethnic groups, especially international groups,” Busch said.

Now this is just lovely. First we don’t have enough diversity. Then we’re mad at all the diverse people because they’ve alienated the white males by failing to integrate.

Now I worry about diversity about as much as the next guy, and approximately 364 fewer days a year than your average feminist or residential life flak, but I see a shadow of a hint of a flicker of a moment on inconsistency here.

Let’s check out a familiar phrase from the WashU website:

The University does not discriminate in access to, or in treatment or employment in, its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran status, or disability.

Now call me a white male racist chauvinist pig, but I think they’re going to have a hard time ensuring diversity if they have to ignore all of the above attributes.

How can the Coordinating Council for Diversity Initiatives ever ensure diversity on campus if they can’t allocate positions with regard to any of the above characteristics? Want more minorities? Seems to me like they’re all off limits. Want more people from Turkey? Oh wait, we can’t allocate slots to anyone based on national origin.

I love diversity as much as the next guy, but I love honesty more.