Commentary

Diversity U.

Witness the horror as intrepid OC reporter Brandon Oberlin delves into the dehumanizing depravity of the University's diversity policy.

The word "diversity" gets tossed around at the U of O quite a bit, but what does it mean? According to the official diversity web site (http://diversity.uoregon.edu) of the UO it means "understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences." "The University of Oregon considers diversity a top priority," said David Hubin, Executive Vice-President. In fact it is such a high priority that they have spent more than $1.6 million of the university's '99-00 budget on it. The majority of this money comes directly from the student in the form of tuition and incidental fees.

How much does diversity directly cost the student? With the exception of the diversity-related student unions, all of the diversity spending comes from the general fund. The general fund is 65% student fees and tuition, with the rest coming from the state government. The student unions are 100% funded by incidental fees. According to the Office of the Registrar, there were 16,342 students (full and part time) attending winter term 2000. This works out to more than $73 per student, per year.

This year the UO offered many programs and activities aimed at increasing cultural diversity and multiculturalism. Among them:

-The Steering Committee for Diversity
-Administration-sponsored speakers Edward James Olmos, Bobby Seale, Tim Wise, and Frances Fox Piven ($2000)
-Three administrators and two students sponsored to go to the Albuquerque, New Mexico "Educating All of One Nation" conference
-Ten diversity interns of summer '99 ($15,500)
-The Administrative Team for Diversity
-The President's Council on Race
-Eight administrators and three students sponsored to go to the National Convention on Race and Ethnicity
-President's Advisory Board for the UO Native American Initiative
-Diversity-Building Scholarship program ($603,063)
-UMAS & UMAS-J Scholarship (Underrepresented Minority Academic Scholarship [$293,052])
-The Bias Response team ($5000)

There is also a permanent Office of Multicultural Affairs ($453,811), and as required by law, an office of Affirmative Action. According to Hubin, the proposed Diversity Institute should be up and running next year. There are also several permanent positions devoted to diversity within various offices. Two of these are "Diversity Affairs Coordinator," and "Assistant Dean of Student Life for Multiethnic Student Programs." The offices of Student Life and Student Academic Affairs had not furnished these budget items by press time.

The ASUO is also very devoted to diversity: it funds some 25 diversity-related student unions to the tune of $305,575 through incidental fees. ASUO president-elect Jay Breslow put diversity on par with mathematics and reading, "It's a core part of education." Breslow worked closely with the President's Office in the wake of the Johnson Hall sit-in of '99.

Based on the heavy emphasis placed on diversity one might conclude that the UO is suffering from not enough minority students: this is not the case. According to the 1996 Census data for Oregon, the minority fraction of the population is 12%, while the UO reported a 15% minority student population in 1998. For this year, President Dave Frohnmayer reports that "Acceptances for all groups of students of color are running at about 150% of last year's figures." In spite of these numbers, it seems that increasing the minority student population is very important to those in charge of allocating funds. When asked if he thought the current diversity spending was justified, given the racial statistics, Breslow responded, "We have to do better than [Oregon's minority population]. The diversity budget is justified and should be augmented."

The ten diversity interns and the Steering Committee for Diversity were established to meet the demands given by the Johnson Hall sit-in protesters last summer. The only thing the ten interns produced was a video about diversity and a $15,500 bill for the President's Office. This is a clear case of the administration slapping a band-aid on the problem to pacify the protest crowd.

The "problem" here is hard to define. The protesters claimed it was the "climate of intolerance" that they were responding to, but in reality there have only been a couple of isolated incidents, nothing like the supposed pattern of racial inequality they contend. The administration did the politically smart thing in this case: they made a relatively minor cash commitment and set up a temporary diversity internship. "I don't see the diversity internships being continued," stated Hubin.

What have the diversity interns and other such programs at the UO actually accomplished? They certainly haven't changed the "climate of intolerance" because there is no "climate of intolerance." Eugene is easily the most liberal and tolerant campus in the state, and along with Berkeley and Evergreen, one of the most on the West coast. This was a non-issue from the start, with the proper non-response from the administration. "We're not saying 'throw money at this,'" Hubin said. "The amount of money currently being spent is appropriate." At least one person in charge of the budget isn't pledging huge sums of other people's money for non-issues.

The stated goals of the diversity-minded are nebulous at best, but they do all have one common denominator: a fixation on politically correct issues. Gender, sexual orientation, and particularly race are the central issues of those who administrate these exclusive programs. It is interesting how the very people who tout a "colorblind society" constantly make race a central part of their agenda. It's no different with gender and sexual orientation. Sometimes though, the diversity issue takes on a more ominous tone. While commenting on the fragmented nature of the diversity bureaucracy, Breslow said, "We need to coordinate efforts. The problem right now is that there's no system of audits. If we had a central diversity organization we'd be able to evaluate people and hold them accountable."

Academics should not be sacrificed for goals that are unattainable at best and social engineering at worst. Money that is spent by the university should be spent on education and not on special interests who are only concerned with spending other people's money on their pet programs.

Brandon Oberlin, a sophomore majoring in biology, is a staff writer for the Oregon Commentator