No University Wants Diversity (See More by Seymore)

4/17/2011

Ex-UCLA student Alexandra Wallace

By C.G. Seymore, Co-contributor

A large qualm I have about higher education as of late (or at the very least at my university UC Berkeley) is the lack of diversity on campus. Universities attempt to artificially create diversity by accepting different raced people to create a façade that masks the real problem: a lack of diverse ideology. Besides the blind hypocrisy of initiating justice through injustice, the concentration on racial diversity, is the not diversity issue we should be dealing with.
A true utopian school is a school where young adults are able to discuss a diverse surplus of different ideologies and are encouraged to stray from the norm. Schools where the professors don’t have a reputation for being “liberal” or “ultra-conservative”. We go to universities for an abundance of reasons, but one of those reasons comes to the idea of entertaining and exploring the mind, probably more than we ever will for the rest of our lives. So what happens when all we hear is biased political rhetoric without any real or encouraged conversation? We get a bunch of young adults that are well versed in professor dialect and terminology.

Schools that pride themselves on set political stances should be embarrassed. They take the very thing that universities are supposed to supply and wall it off. This creates a polarization effect, in which students know these reputations and will polarize to their most comfortable political and ideological destination. This is where students know they will be patted on the back for re-edifying their own beliefs, and rarely does it encourage them to test the status quo. Students become complaisant and rarely challenge the status quo; this is wrong, this is not what our youth needs to be absorbing and making a habit of. When we students (or our parents) borrow or fork out $100-200,000 for education, nothing seems more problematic than getting an education that only reinforces current ideals and fails to challenge the mind.
This is a plea for schools to take into consideration the idea that maybe their emphasis on diversity has been skewed. It is a plea for students to stop being complacent and demand that their schools challenge their current ideology and encourage diversified political and ideological identities; not perpetuate the ones they already have. If there is a concentration on diversity of the mind, then the problem of diversification of universities between race and other various qualities will level itself out, since there are no innate differences between different races and people.

Cheers

14 Comments

LaShonda

4/17/2011 01:37:01 pm

....hmm...seeing as though I went to UC Berkeley... I don't exactly see how my political ideology was streamlined and that my thoughts were conformed to that of the university... I think it's really interesting that this writer doesn't see the main focus of diversity needing to be racial. Yes, there are clearly various types of diversity... many that are non-racial. However, as an alumni of UC Berkeley...having 4.8% African-American students when I was there and even less today...I definitely you can't call your college "diverse" because of the 40%+ Asian/Asian-Americans... Yeah..but Go Bears! lol

just to lashonda

4/17/2011 03:15:22 pm

--i'm pretty sure the writer made it clear that the focus on racial diversity is NOT important..hence the entire article...and that, atleast what I get, is that the focus on diversity of the mind and ideological differences, is far more important than filling a "quota" of race....

Just saying that's what I see, interesting article.

Terence Lee, M.D. link

4/17/2011 03:43:12 pm

Diversity of ideas exists IN SPITE of efforts by government school teachers and administrators. Fresh, young, curious, enthusiastic minds enter the K to 12 grinder and out come jaded school-hating future soldiers and tax-paying workerbees full of conformity and obedience to authority. Thanks in part to the internet, there is a revival, especial during the college years where certain individuals begin to question what they've been repeatedly told. It's exciting. Good luck. Engage in conversation and practice critical thinking. Your future happiness just might depend on it. :)

K.K.

4/17/2011 03:49:11 pm

This can be related to many schools, specifically mine (most conservative cal state school). What I take away from this article is the interesting concept of diversity. Yes, there is racial diversity, but, like he mentioned, there are many different types. The problem with the issue of 'diversity' is that in some cultures, it is taboo to leave the social/cultural group you are associated with. Americans associate great schools with high diversity and individualism, but regions such as Asia are notoriously high in collectivism. So when we see schools that have more of a unified way of thought(non-diverse), that is just something natural. It is a concept the human mind cannot stray away: the feeling of belonging. So in conclusion, YES it is more beneficial to have a broader and more accepting nature of diversity, but it is something that is ingrained in cultures, human psychology, and many other factors.

Maggie link

4/17/2011 03:58:07 pm

I wonder if also geography has something to do with the school's political stance. What exactly establishes the typical political stances of schools?

Ashley

4/17/2011 04:05:23 pm

Racial diversity is important, that's the only way you learn about different cultures. Furhermore, I don't think the writer is implying that racial diversity ISN'T important; he's saying that if a school has diverse ideology, the school would naturally be diverse in other areas. One feeds into the other.

v.d.l.r.

4/18/2011 01:39:03 am

Whether or not you agree with the blog, I am glad that it has people thinking about the ideas contained in the blog. After reading the article and the comments, I am glad that it has elicited some well thought out comments. I agree with Ashley. I think the author is saying that one will feed into the other. The problem is that people in general suck and race plays more of a factor than it should. I also graduated from UCB and I think you can find a diverse set of ideas brewing on campus but you have to seek out different groups and ideas, since people are not taught to mingle with people outside of their social circles.

Terence Lee, M.D. link

4/18/2011 01:43:26 am

Diversity is something that can be encouraged and suggested, but should not be attempted by force nor violence. It makes more sense to point out and argue the many advantages of exposing oneself to different cultures rather than to mandate people to expose themselves to something that they choose not to. Right?

S.C.

4/18/2011 02:04:57 am

I disagree with the theme that ideological diversity is even healthy or a requirement. I believe values should be taught foundationaly in the home and then honed, strengthened, or even somewhat challenged at University. The approach is as if values are the dishes in a buffet line and should picked and chosen.

Brittany

4/18/2011 04:32:56 am

What's sad is that no matter how holistically diverse a university is, many students won't take advantage of the diversity; they'll fearfully and biasley stick to their own culture, ideas and demographic. I've been in an diverse academic environment in the south my whole life, and despite being in school with same minority students for years, my Caucasian counterparts still had very narrow views and never attempted to broaden them, learning nothing from those different from them.

Tony D link

4/18/2011 10:47:09 am

C "The G" Seymore,

Dude you really hit the nail on the head with this one. Especially what you said about the polarization effect with "liberal/Conservative" schools. The fact of the matter is that professors and administrators at these schools brand these institutions as liberal/conservative based on their collective ideologies. A lot of students are brainwashed by these people, and thus a fresh supply of young polarized people.I think this is completely irresponsible and contributes to the ongoing polarization effect that we see in politics today.

This why we need more pragmatic individuals like you speaking out. Keep it up brother!

k.p.b.

4/18/2011 01:15:58 pm

First, i think that it isn't at the scale of the university but at a much larger scale. Ideologies, if there are any that are prevalent, are present geographically. Thus, you'd need to change not the schools' ideologies per se, but ideologies that are geographically present (e.g. California's big city tending to be more liberal). With that comes history. These cities whether it is San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles... became more liberal for a reason that rests in history. And I think it's unfair to deny that prevalence of ideology, therefore to deny the history and how things have evolved over time. You can't really change history.

Then, there is a matter of socioeconomic status. Many professors who are teaching at a public institution will not be as well paid as say professors who teach at a private one. This also plays with the fact that professors at uc Berkeley may be more liberal than, say, professors at USC. And that you can't really change either.

That said, I think dialogue of ideologies exist at cal. We need to remember first that we can't take everything we learn in the classroom literally. What is said in the classroom is not necessarily what the professors believe but is more part of a syllabus that the department or program or even university has approved as suitable. What the professor believes, you can figure that out at their office. But they are not teaching to preach their views and to inculcate some sort of ideologies to us so we become some sort of soldiers for their cause. That said, there are many classes available to us where different ideologies are presented to us in a very objective manner. Whether it is liberal, libertarian, conservative, utilitarian... We get to learn about all this. Maybe you didn't get the right classes for you to be exposed to such"diversity" of ideologies... Because they exist. And again they are presented so we ca learn about them. Thus presented in a very objective manner. I really think people should stop thinking that what is said in the classroom is automatically what the professor believes. This, to me, is a shortcut to find a scapegoat when not agreeing with something that is said in the classroom. If we didn't hold professors accountable for it, all would be anonymous and we would have a hard time finding someone to blame.

When they teach us about structuralism or whatever it is, professors talk about it but not necessarily believe in or adhere to it... So we could blame it's fathers instead: Marx, Freud...

Finally, even if I hear all these things in class (and I did hear many different ideologies), I didn't change my beliefs. My fundamental beliefs are the same, but my way of thinking and seeing the world may have changed a bit, may have matured to something more critical - and that because I was exposed to many different ideologies and a diversity of thoughts among my peers. And I think that's exactly why we are going to school. I am not going to school to reaffirm my beliefs. I understand Berkeley is generally liberal, but what we learn isn't any kind of particular ideologies. We learn many of them, we are exposed to many different theories so we can build our own thoughts about them, in concomitance with the beliefs we held prior to going to this school.

Judging the nature of the ideologies we learn in the classroom based on the well-known fact that Berkeley has been liberal due to both history and geography and maybe the people that inhabit the bay area is not quite just. Because in the end we are exposed to many ideologies and they are not necessarily what the professors think! We are exposed to diversity!

Finally, if we only count our skin color... Yeah we could say that racial diversity is superficial. But that is also a superficial way of thinking about diversity. There are so many people with so many different backgrounds. In the end its not one's color skin but where one grew up that matters and can bring a diversity of thought! And that, cal has!!! More so, someone will have different views also depending on his/her major(s). Someone from business will have different views from someone from the environmental department... All this diversity among students can also be seen in the MANY groups and associations that inundates Sproul on a daily basis. And you will find all sorts of groups, from liberal to conservatives, to libertarian, to religious ones... And that just shows that there is diversity that exists and subsists on campus and that a dialogue exists. I think it's just as important to recognize that it's not just in the classroom that we should be looking for diversity... It's also out there, on campus with and among our peers, in the teachers offices... Because in the end what we learn in the classroom, unless it was Foucault himself who was teaching us his theories, is not what the professors came up with (for the most part). So we need to stop thinking that way and realize that we can't assume anything about professo

k.p.b.

4/19/2011 06:19:39 am

So we need to stop thinking that way and realize that we can't assume anything about professors just because they regurgitate ideologies. It's not (just) in the classroom. It's at each and every corner of our university and of the surroundings they we need to see whether diversity exists. And with students from many different background (not talking about the skin here) and their many different ways of thinking about and seeing the world and how opened they are to discuss and debate these views, we can realize that diversity of ideologies AND of people exists. And it's not Berkeley's liberal reputation that should take that away from it.

Crystal

4/22/2011 10:12:30 am

@Seymore- I totally agree!
@Maggie- Having been to two colleges that seemed to be opposite ends of the spectrum, I think I can offer some insight on where a school's political ideology comes from. Private colleges that are sponsored by religious organizations tend to hold more conservative views and state schools (in the interest of separation of church and state) tend to be more liberal.

No University Wants Diversity (See More by Seymore)

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