Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Less Academics, More Narcissism (at U. Cal)

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/cjc0714hm.html
Less Academics, More Narcissism
The University of California is cutting back on many things, but not useless diversity programs.
by Heather Mac Donald
City Journal
14 July 2011

California�s budget crisis has reduced the University of California to near-penury, claim its spokesmen. �Our campuses and the UC Office of the President already have cut to the bone,� the university system�s vice president for budget and capital resources warned earlier this month, in advance of this week�s meeting of the university�s regents. Well, not exactly to the bone. Even as UC campuses jettison entire degree programs and lose faculty to competing universities, one fiefdom has remained virtually sacrosanct: the diversity machine.

Not only have diversity sinecures been protected from budget cuts, their numbers are actually growing. The University of California at San Diego, for example, is creating a new full-time �vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion.� This position would augment UC San Diego�s already massive diversity apparatus, which includes the Chancellor�s Diversity Office, the associate vice chancellor for faculty equity, the assistant vice chancellor for diversity, the faculty equity advisors, the graduate diversity coordinators, the staff diversity liaison, the undergraduate student diversity liaison, the graduate student diversity liaison, the chief diversity officer, the director of development for diversity initiatives, the Office of Academic Diversity and Equal Opportunity, the Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Issues, the Committee on the Status of Women, the Campus Council on Climate, Culture and Inclusion, the Diversity Council, and the directors of the Cross-Cultural Center, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center, and the Women�s Center.

...

UC San Diego is adding diversity fat even as it snuffs out substantive academic programs. In March, the Academic Senate decided that the school would no longer offer a master�s degree in electrical and computer engineering; it also eliminated a master�s program in comparative literature and courses in French, German, Spanish, and English literature. At the same time, the body mandated a new campus-wide diversity requirement for graduation. The cultivation of �a student�s understanding of her or his identity,� as the diversity requirement proposal put it, would focus on �African Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, Chicanos, Latinos, Native Americans, or other groups� through the �framework� of �race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality, language, ability/disability, class or age.� Training computer scientists to compete with the growing technical prowess of China and India, apparently, can wait. More pressing is guaranteeing that students graduate from UCSD having fully explored their �identity.� Why study Cervantes, Voltaire, or Goethe when you can contemplate yourself? �Diversity,� it turns out, is simply a code word for narcissism.

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Since much of what goes on in American schools and colleges is an expression of teachers' and administrators' political beliefs and has nothing to do with education, I favor budget cuts and a general reduction of the government's role in education.

I don't know if this is really a useful link for a gifted chat site like this.
It's very sad that the UC system is cutting so many important departments and topics out. They are trying to balance a hopeless budget.
On the flip side, California obviously has many ethnic minorities. San Diego, as you would imagine, is a polyglot of rich, diverse cultures. It is important for kids to get exposure to diverse cultures in a state like California, which also opens access to study (or working) abroad. That is vital with this global economy.
Starting in junior high, kids in our California public school district can take Spanish, French, (I hope, German), Chinese, and Japanese! And that continues up through AP-level classes at the high school.
I don't think learning about other cultures is necessarily narcissism.

The real reason is is that higher education has lost its focus on its mission which is education and the school admins will not make hard choices and hold people accountable.

I recall this story here in TX. 20% of the faculty teaches 90% of the classes and 10% of the profs bring in 90% of the grants.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/education/20-percent-of-UT-profs-instruct-most-students-122440489.html

It appears to me that we could reduce faculty down to 30-40% of where we are now - with the resulting drop in infrastructure costs like buildings, admin, etc. This would cut tuition in half or better. Further, they could hire adjucnts to reduce cost further.

My mom's brother was on the faculty at a state school in the 70s. He taught a full load, had a practice, and sat on committees. He worked 80 to 100 hours a week. My mom's sister had a Masters in ChemE and was an adjunct. She taught 2 courses a semester in addition to a FT job. This was how it was done in the 60s and 70s - and NYC educated its immigrant population in the 1880s to 1960s this way.

As for the OP, education in hard degrees has been the traditional way up for minorities. A focus instead on �race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality, language, ability/disability, class or age.� will not get someone a job nor build something nor get something done.

As someone who manages a workforce that is mostly minority - many with no degrees, a 3.2 GPA Computer Science degree and/or a CCNA will get anyone a job. Anyone who works hard and is bright can do it. If you are real smart and can work hard, then I will train you myself.

A 4.0 in "diversity" is useless to me. Why someone would tell someone to waste their time and money on it amazes me - and I consider it a form of snake oil.

When I read things like this is helps me feel better about the fact that I can't afford to send DD to college anyway. I wonder what it will be like in 10 years?

I agree there! Our local UC schools, including Berkeley, are about $30,000-35,000 a year with room, board, tuition, etc. That isn't that cheap! Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Northwestern (my alma mater) are around $50,000 or more a year.
My friend's son is going to Medical College of new York, a good (not great, but definitely respectable) private medical school and it is $70,000 a year! How can anyone really afford that???

Yes, but as the article says, the budget has been cut, and UCSD responded by cutting things like computer science and French, while hiring a new vice chancellor for inclusion. I expect that private colleges also have diversity nonsense, too (and yes, I agree that it's complete nonsense). I don't believe the government is pushing them to do this; it's their own bad idea.

A 221% increase in overhead.

http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-07-14-11.htm

And I will bet a lot of other "expenses" are bloated as well. I'd have to see the entire budget and then compare to private scorecard metrics.

I'm not at all sure how diversity bashing posts are on topic for a gifted education board.

Perhaps you all have forgotten the youtube sensation of a UCLA student video last year.

Agreed. I know way too little about UC to really criticize their choice in budget cuts. My own alma matter choose not to give tenure to two very outstanding professors (one in a foreign language and the other worked in a hard science) due to budget cuts. It wasn't because the professors were inadequate or that the fields they worked in were useless (quite the opposite!) but there was simply not a large demand on that campus for their respective areas. I have no clue what most UC students major in but I don't think it's highly unlikely that more students could be getting degrees that relate to some sort of diversity. Obviously, they wouldn't be people who would be trying to get jobs in computer related subjects but could possibly be trying to become lawyers, psychologists, or teachers in their respective fields. Also, I could certainly see the use in a degree like that now in CA considering that you do have quite a bit of diversity in general there...

I don't see the connection to giftedness here at all since you have children who can be gifted in languages/humanities and/or in math/science. Not all gifted children will want to become computer science majors...

And, many who do appreciate the importance of the understanding of race, class, and gender particularly in our increasingly global, multicultural world.