Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Now that the left completely controls academia, they have become what they claimed to be against:
December’s Notices of the American Mathematical Society contains a surprising column on Page 4, given that mathematicians have not been on the front lines of debates about diversity and campus speech.

The column, by Abigail Thompson, chair of math at the University of California, Davis, and one of the society’s vice presidents, says that today’s diversity statements are like the political litmus tests of the McCarthy era.

“In 1950 the Regents of the University of California required all UC faculty to sign a statement asserting that ‘I am not a member of, nor do I support any party or organization that believes in, advocates, or teaches the overthrow of the United States Government, by force or by any illegal or unconstitutional means, that I am not a member of the Communist Party,’” Thompson says. Those who refused to sign were fired.

Now, “Faculty at universities across the country are facing an echo of the loyalty oath, a mandatory ‘Diversity Statement’ for job applicants.”
The author identifies such statements as obvious litmus tests.  Notice that the column was written by a mathematician, not someone in the social sciences. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've seen diversity questions on private-high school apps.

-- Ann in L.A.

Ellen K said...

I would say nearly half the in-service training I have done in the past five years has been centered on social justice issues more than academic concerns.