Wednesday, October 26, 2011

All HAIL Diversity!!



Can I get an Amen?!!!   

This is an old story on our campuses. Colleges and universities enact severe budget cuts, dropping programs and letting teachers go, while unapologetically expanding their already swollen diversity bureaucracy. This is because diversity now has the status of an established religion on our campuses, while actual teaching deals only in mere learning.
Our campuses and the UC Office of the President already have cut to the bone,” the University of California’s vice president for budget and capital resources warned about the system’s financial crisis in July. Not quite to the bone. Heather Mac Donald writes:

“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.”

Cut to the BONE!!  Amen!

UC Berkeley’s new vice chancellor for equity and inclusion, Gibor Basri, has 17 people working for him in his immediate office, including a “chief of staff,” two “project/policy analysts,” and a “director of special projects.” Says Mac Donald: “The funding propping up Basri’s vast office could support many an English or history professor. According to state databases, Basri’s base pay in 2009 was $194,000, which does not include a variety of possible add-ons, including summer salary and administrative stipends. By comparison, the official salary for assistant professors at UC starts at around $53,000….

Only 17 staff in these hard times!  Amen!

How do they do it?!!!!