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Letters to the Editor

Globe and Mail, Saturday 17 August 2019

DIVERSITY IN ACADEMIA

I appreciated Margaret Wente’s column last Saturday, Diversity Runs Amok In Academia (Aug. 10). As a professor and a board member of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, I can attest to the increasing prominence of diversicrats in every aspect of university life.

“Diversity” policies, which are driven by the ideology of the politics of identity and entitlement, exhibit classic rent-seeking behaviour. By putting up barriers to entry, dictating ideology tests for hiring, and “tying” academic objectives to diversity criteria, scarce university resources can be diverted to diversiphiles.

The widespread acceptance of postmodern relativism in the social sciences and humanities also undermines any appreciation of academic standards. As a result, a great deal of university activity is spent on indulging the grievances of favoured identity groups, rather than pursuing the truth and increasing empirical knowledge and theoretical understanding.

Frances Widdowson, associate professor, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta
Twitter with Frances https://twitter.com/FrancesWiddows1

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Photo:  from the publication  " social justice " .. back in the day ...