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October 12, 2007
Mankiw: Affirmative Action for Conservative Professors?
Greg Mankiw (Harvard, Department of Economics) asks Is Academia Serious About Diversity?:
If right-wingers are underrepresented in universities relative to the population and discriminated against by the left-wing majority, as Larry [Summers] suggests, should there be affirmative action for right-leaning academics? It seems that, on principle, those on the left (who favor affirmative action to promote diversity and correct past injustice) should endorse such a university policy, and those on the right (who more often oppose affirmative action) would be against.
Update:
October 12, 2007 in Law School | Permalink
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Comments
Well, maybe. Affirmative action for conservative professors as such would seem a contradiction in ideological terms. But isn't exposure to diverse viewpoints part of the educational experience? If this is the goal of such hiring, it seems to me unobjectionable and indeed overdue. If by contrast it is a cynical counterploy--if we are simply talking about turning traditional white males into another victim group, without considering whether they are adding a genuinely new and missing viewpoint--then it might be better done without. Most studies show the most underrepresented groups to be conservative women and minorities, especially people of faith; perhaps the re-balancing should start there.
Posted by: Michael Livingston | Oct 12, 2007 9:54:39 AM
