Why Do Universities Want a Diverse Student Body?

[Rhea]

but the American graph shows a long-term rise in patents per capita.

I would expect this, since today’s patents are for portions of ideas and operating windows as well as actual new technology. Nowadays if you patent a new widget-maker, you’ll likely file a dozen or more patent applications for various aspects and imagined variations of the machine.

But it doesn’t mean there are that many more “ideas” out there, as we generally discuss “ideas.”

 

[Bomb#20]

And a private university at that. A school that is, in fact, much more famous for buying and selling African slaves two centuries ago than for any efforts at encouraging diversity in the present.

Hey, a new fallacy for the lists: ad collegium.

 

[Bomb#20]

John Hasnas is a in a business school. I find his interpretation of events suspect because in my experience, business school faculty are generally not adverse to pro-business or pro-capitalist ideologies.

He's also a professor at Georgetown's law school.

 

[laughing dog]

John Hasnas is a in a business school. I find his interpretation of events suspect because in my experience, business school faculty are generally not adverse to pro-business or pro-capitalist ideologies.

He's also a professor at Georgetown's law school.

True, but his appointment in the law school is "by courtesy" (their words, not mine - John Hasnas ). I don't know much about law schools, but I suspect that "by courtesy" suggests he is not regarded as a "regular" faculty member.

In any event, I suspect his interpretation of those events is incomplete.

I also think his argument is a bit ironic. After all, he is on the faculty and it is clear from his argument that he is not progressive or woke.

 

[Politesse]

And a private university at that. A school that is, in fact, much more famous for buying and selling African slaves two centuries ago than for any efforts at encouraging diversity in the present.

Hey, a new fallacy for the lists: ad collegium.

Is that the word for blindly attacking the university system, with very little evidence to back up your paranoid claims about it?

 

[Bomb#20]

John Hasnas is a in a business school. I find his interpretation of events suspect because in my experience, business school faculty are generally not adverse to pro-business or pro-capitalist ideologies.

He's also a professor at Georgetown's law school.

True, but his appointment in the law school is "by courtesy" (their words, not mine - John Hasnas ). I don't know much about law schools, but I suspect that "by courtesy" suggests he is not regarded as a "regular" faculty member.

According to Wikipedia,

A professor who is primarily and originally associated with one academic department, but has become officially associated with a second department, institute, or program within the university and has assumed a professor's duty in that second department as well, could be called a "professor by courtesy." Example: "Dan Jurafsky is professor of linguistics and professor by courtesy of computer science at Stanford University".​

Definitions vary from school to school; I couldn't find Georgetown's definition. Hasnas teaches mostly in the business school but teaches a few law school courses, such as torts and white-collar crime.

In any event, I suspect his interpretation of those events is incomplete.

I also think his argument is a bit ironic. After all, he is on the faculty and it is clear from his argument that he is not progressive or woke.

Well, the obvious interpretation is he bypassed the law school's typical filtering because when they needed somebody to teach a course, he was available in the business school and he had the background from when he'd been a law professor at GMU.

 

[laughing dog]

John Hasnas is a in a business school. I find his interpretation of events suspect because in my experience, business school faculty are generally not adverse to pro-business or pro-capitalist ideologies.

He's also a professor at Georgetown's law school.

True, but his appointment in the law school is "by courtesy" (their words, not mine - John Hasnas ). I don't know much about law schools, but I suspect that "by courtesy" suggests he is not regarded as a "regular" faculty member.

According to Wikipedia,

A professor who is primarily and originally associated with one academic department, but has become officially associated with a second department, institute, or program within the university and has assumed a professor's duty in that second department as well, could be called a "professor by courtesy." Example: "Dan Jurafsky is professor of linguistics and professor by courtesy of computer science at Stanford University".​

Definitions vary from school to school; I couldn't find Georgetown's definition. Hasnas teaches mostly in the business school but teaches a few law school courses, such as torts and white-collar crime.

In any event, I suspect his interpretation of those events is incomplete.

I also think his argument is a bit ironic. After all, he is on the faculty and it is clear from his argument that he is not progressive or woke.

Well, the obvious interpretation is he bypassed the law school's typical filtering because when they needed somebody to teach a course, he was available in the business school and he had the background from when he'd been a law professor at GMU.

Perhaps.

On the other hand, there are plenty of lawyers in DC area for any law school to draw upon to teach a class and who meets any ideological litmus test.

All in all, I cannot help but think his story is missing some relevant details so as to make it less compelling to me.

 

[Bomb#20]

So, one person at one college. At least it is evidence supporting your claim, but it seems a bit short on being able to use it to broad brush the entire collegiate system in our country.

Here are a couple of good articles on the broader situation:

Book Review | Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progressive University, by Jon A. Shields and Joshua M. Dunn, Sr.

Reviewed by Robert M. Whaples | What's it like being a conservative or libertarian professor in the American academy today? Many readers of The Independent Review can answer this question from first-hand experience, while others can sympathize. But in Jon Shields and Joshua Dunn's telling, the...

www.independent.org

Diversifying the Academy: How Conservative Academics Can Thrive in Liberal Academia | PS: Political Science & Politics | Cambridge Core

Diversifying the Academy: How Conservative Academics Can Thrive in Liberal Academia - Volume 45 Issue 3

www.cambridge.org

 

[Politesse]

There's a new study out of Opportunity Insights making the rounds, bringing the whole idea that colleges do want a diverse student body into serious question. As diverse as the 1% ever gets, I suppose!


Even controlling for test scores, there's a pretty clear preference for the children of the dripping rich.

PBS NewsHour | How college admissions practices benefit richest applicants | Season 2023 | PBS

Study outlines how college admissions practices benefit richest applicants

www.pbs.org

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There's a new study out of Opportunity Insights making the rounds, bringing the whole idea that colleges do want a diverse student body into serious question. As diverse as the 1% ever gets, I suppose!

View attachment 43835
Even controlling for test scores, there's a pretty clear preference for the children of the dripping rich.

PBS NewsHour | How college admissions practices benefit richest applicants | Season 2023 | PBS

Study outlines how college admissions practices benefit richest applicants

www.pbs.org

Well, duh, they can to a substantial degree buy their way in.

 

[bilby]

There's a new study out of Opportunity Insights making the rounds, bringing the whole idea that colleges do want a diverse student body into serious question. As diverse as the 1% ever gets, I suppose!

View attachment 43835
Even controlling for test scores, there's a pretty clear preference for the children of the dripping rich.

PBS NewsHour | How college admissions practices benefit richest applicants | Season 2023 | PBS

Study outlines how college admissions practices benefit richest applicants

www.pbs.org

Well, duh, they can to a substantial degree buy their way in.

And obviously, if they can buy their way in, that's perfectly OK, and in no way problematic for the diversity of the student body, nor for the overall intellectual ability of its membership.


FFS, the point is that buying their way in is a problem. Nobody was unaware that this was the mechanism by which wealthy people were over-represented.

 

[Politesse]

There's a new study out of Opportunity Insights making the rounds, bringing the whole idea that colleges do want a diverse student body into serious question. As diverse as the 1% ever gets, I suppose!

View attachment 43835
Even controlling for test scores, there's a pretty clear preference for the children of the dripping rich.

PBS NewsHour | How college admissions practices benefit richest applicants | Season 2023 | PBS

Study outlines how college admissions practices benefit richest applicants

www.pbs.org

Well, duh, they can to a substantial degree buy their way in.

That is the painfully obvious implication, yes.

 

[Bomb#20]

There's a new study out of Opportunity Insights making the rounds, bringing the whole idea that colleges do want a diverse student body into serious question. As diverse as the 1% ever gets, I suppose!

Well, duh, they can to a substantial degree buy their way in.

And obviously, if they can buy their way in, that's perfectly OK, and in no way problematic for the diversity of the student body

For it to be problematic for the diversity of the student body they would need to value diversity of the student body.
As Politesse points out, they don't.

, nor for the overall intellectual ability of its membership.

What quantity does "overall intellectual ability of its membership" refer to?

FFS, the point is that buying their way in is a problem.

Bilby, meet bilby.
https://iidb.org/threads/the-remarkable-progress-of-renewable-energy.13135/page-93#post-1116547
https://iidb.org/threads/the-remarkable-progress-of-renewable-energy.13135/page-93#post-1116600

The question you need to answer is "what is the problem?"

Who or what is at risk here? Who is going to get hurt, and how? What environmental damage is going to occur, and how?

A rich donor's kid in college is not 'green goo' - he's a boring grey ceramic solid, heavy and not as bright as average. Even if he were somehow broken open, the materials inside aren't going to go anywhere; as long as everyone stays back a few metres, nobody's going to get hurt.

I would love to refute your point here, but I am sadly unable to determine what it is, or even whether you have one.

Yes, I am aware that when donors' kids are mentioned, lots of apparently reasonable people totally lose their minds. But I doubt that your post was intended solely to demonstrate that fact.

Could you perhaps specify exactly what you think the problem is with dads buying their kids' way in, and why you think it's a problem?

Is it the number of deaths and injuries it has so far caused (zero)?

Or do you maybe have a plausible scenario in mind for a future situation in which a kid who didn't earn his place academically hurts someone? How do you expect this to occur, and how does the risk compare to that of other students with industrial waste stream minds? [cough]athletes[/cough]

Please, be specific; And talk as though you're explaining this to someone who doesn't start with the assumption that a rich kid is inherently and uniquely dangerous - if you do wish to include that characteristic, you're going to need to explicitly set out how and why you reached that position.

Is it the number of unadmitted high school grads it has so far caused? (Less than zero, provided the pricetag on buying a slot for your kid is high enough.)

Nobody was unaware that this was the mechanism by which wealthy people were over-represented.

Wealthy people are not over-represented. They can't be, because they are not represented at all. A college class is neither an attempt to measure a quantity in a population by statistical sampling, nor a legislature. Students go to college to learn, or to party, or to get union cards, or to get out of their parents' homes, or for a dozen other reasons; none of those reasons are to represent other people.