What Harvard means by ‘Diversity’
Boston Globe | Jeff Jacoby
Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby argues that “Harvard’s 82-to-1 faculty ratio of liberals to conservatives makes a mockery of the university’s avowed commitment to diversity.” As Jacoby notes, Harvard’s “website declares that ‘Harvard’s commitment to diversity in all forms…is rooted in our fundamental belief that engaging with unfamiliar ideas, perspectives, cultures, and people creates the conditions for dramatic and meaningful growth’… [but] everyone knows that Harvard has no desire to uphold ‘diversity in all forms’… The clash of ideas? A robust competition among worldviews? The exposure of students to compelling arguments that challenge liberal and progressive shibboleths? That’s not what Harvard is interested in. It hasn’t been for decades.”
Jacoby also notes that the ideological imbalance is what many Harvard faculty think is best—as the Crimson reported, “When asked whether they would support increasing ideological diversity among faculty by hiring more conservative-leaning professors, only a quarter of respondents were in support.”
Is the answer in mandates and quotas? No, says Jacoby. “The steady leftward march of academia’s most prestigious institutions is a genuine problem, but it isn’t one that can be solved by tokenism or litmus tests, or by involving the government in hiring decisions. Frankly, I doubt that it can be solved at all other than perhaps by building up new institutions of higher education — a worthy process, but one that, even in the best of circumstances, will take many years to succeed.”
More than 80% of Surveyed Harvard Faculty Identify Politically as Liberals (Crimson, 7/13/22)
