University of Oregon Diversity Forum

It all started from a paranormal phenomenon: in April 2005, I was reading the First Draft of the Five Year Diversity Plan for University of Oregon and felt that my hair began to raise. As you can see for example from this picture, I don't have much hair to speak of, so the phenomenon was especially striking. Since I am a scientist I had to investigate...

What is the goal of this forum? To start with, I'd like to investigate the the following questions:

  • Question 1. Are conservative and religious people discriminated against in UO (and U.S. academia in general)?
  • Question 2. Are racial, gender, and other group preferences, the way they are practiced by UO (and other U.S. universities), illegal?
  • Question 3. Are racial, gender, and other group preferences, the way they are practiced by UO (and other U.S. universities), unfair?
  • Question 4. Are racial, gender, and other group preferences, the way they are practiced by UO (and other U.S. universities), counterproductive?
  • Question 5. If the group preferences are illegal, unfair or counterproductive do we have better ideas on how to improve the situation?

    From what I was able to find out so far, it seems like the answers are, respectively: 1. yes; 2. don't know; 3. don't know; 4. yes; 5. yes. But I don't know enough yet. I got really interested in this only in 2005 (see above), so I am just an amateur. And there are so many "specialists" on these topics nowadays in our universities. But my advantage is that I am a scientist, not an ideologue, so in the end I will be happy with any answers to my questions. In fact, I would prefer it if the answer came out to be "No" to all of them. Unfortunately, many "specialists" are ideologues---they have vested interest in a particular answer, so we will need to exercise caution when using their opinions...

    Here is my first shot at Question 1:

  • My article in the REGISTER GUARD and related discussions.

    Here is an interesting case study:

  • History of the Five Year Diversity Plan for University of Oregon.

    Here is an attempt by UO Economics Professor Bill Harbaugh to address Question 5:

  • Blog dedicated to the Alternative Diversity Plan, with wealth of factual references related to UO diversity matters

    Among other interesting things you can find on the Harbaugh'e blog above are: 1) racial and ethnic background of UO students and faculty, compared to the state (which seems to show that we are already more diverse that the state); 2) Estimates of UO Diversity Expenditures; 3) Discussion of the legal matters; 4) Information on Joe Wade's lawsuit.

  • References

    If you want your thoughts to appear on this forum, e-mail me at klesh@uoregon.edu . You can of course request that your name is withheld. If you have any interesting ideas, references, documents, or facts to share, again, let me know.

    This site is under construction.

    Back to Home Page of Alexander Kleshchev