KC Johnson has more on administrative corruption at Brooklyn College, in the form of a Sun op-ed and a Cliopatria post on the school's "diversity commissars." One quarter of BC's hires over the past eight years have been minority hires. And yet, Brooklyn College now requires that every search committee include a minority faculty member--even if there are no minority faculty members qualified to evaluate job candidates in certain fields.

KC's op-ed summarizes the college's political agenda, as manifested in policy, public statements, and ethically suspect hiring practices:

If the collegeís own hiring numbers suggest no need for this untested scheme, then why has Brooklyn College embraced it? The administration apparently believes that hiring more minorities will further its goal ó pursued through a variety of questionable means over the past three years ó of creating an ideologically homogeneous faculty.

This is an institution, after all, where the provost, Roberta Matthews, maintaining that ìteaching is a political act,î has advocated restructuring the curriculum in order to train ìglobal citizens.î

To clarify the concept, a document recently distributed by Ms. Matthews stated that ìglobalî ó as opposed, apparently, to American ó citizens are those sensitized to ìconcepts of race, class, and gender.î

On another front, the administration endorsed a written testament from a senior womenís history professor ó whose Web site affirms her belief in combining scholarship with ìactivismî for ìassorted radical causesî ó condemning as ìold-fashionedî those who teach ìpolitical history, focused on figures in power.î

One job candidate, Sean McMeekin, recalled that this professor interviewed him not about his impressively reviewed scholarship but instead about the appropriateness of his having written for a conservative Christian webzine.

Not only did this ideological profiling pass without rebuke, but the Brooklyn College president, C. M. Kimmich, recently used his powers under CUNYís bylaws to install the professor on the departmentís personnel committee, where she can ensure that future hires conform to her ideological agenda.

You know what practical effect this has? As someone who sees a fair amount of resumes floating across his desk, I will certainly look more carefully and skeptically at the credentials a Brooklyn College grad is presenting. I will wonder how their education and preparation has been degraded. The BC people have to understand that there are real ramifications to their decisions to "further diversity" at the expense of hiring the most qualified professors. These ramifications will be felt by their graduates in the market place.

I am a white male, 55 years old. I was born into poverty and ignorance beyond most of your imaginations. I am the first member of my extended family to graduate from a four year college. There is no black person in the U.S. born to more humble origins. I guarantee this to you.

And, yet, I've been told to step back throughout my life and accept that blacks, gays and women have preference over me. The results are tangible. The quota system has taken job after job away from me, or consigned me to a lower ranking job than I would otherwise have held. If I voice a complaint, or even a whisper that I also need a job and equal opportunity, I am invariably slandered as a bigot. I am not even allowed to defend myself.

No self pity here. I've done very well, but I haven't done as well as I should have. Considerable professional stature has been denied to me. This has hurt my extended family in ways that are hard to define. And before you start screaming "bigot" at me, are you willing to sacrifice your job for the advancement of a woman, black or gay? I've noticed that those who persist in volunteering me for this sacrifice do not intend to sacrifice themselves.

The whole system's a joke. Makes me thank God I'm a woman. If the places I apply to for a job hires a less-qualified minority man, I plan to show them what indoctrination in "affirmative action" does--I'll scream sexual discrimination.

I don't think they'd understand that I was mocking them. Unfortunately.

Brooklyn College administrators are of a certain ideology which is highly antagonistic to white males. This ideology has taken over the democratic party in america, and we see many white males--even union members--fleeing the democratic party as a result.

What I am saying is that this is much bigger than Brooklyn College. The same thing is happening in most federal government agencies, and many state and local government agencies. Even AT&T and its corporate sisters are sacrificing merit for the sake of "diversity" in its promotions, hires, and retentions.

Surely the taxpayers of New York City could do better with a tax cut than with the continued existence of this obviously unnecessary and pointless institution for leftist patronage and indoctrination? Not that I expect anyone there to actually suggest the idea.

cuny is one of the few public university systems that is truly affordable and accessible to those who could not otherwise obtain a four-year college education because of family/financial responsibilities. that alone should be worth the little bit of nyc taxpayer money that is directed towards its colleges.

"cuny is one of the few public university systems that is truly affordable and accessible to those who could not otherwise obtain a four-year college education because of family/financial responsibilities. that alone should be worth the little bit of nyc taxpayer money that is directed towards its colleges."

If it is truly affordble and accessible and gives out worthless diplomas and does not give a good education, then what good is it. If you have a chance of buying a car for $5000 that will be guaranteed to break down every day or at the times when you really need a car, would it make you feel better that the car was cheap? That is what you are advocating. If the education is no better than you can get at a diploma mill from one of the Spam documents that I keep getting in my email, then I think I can get the diploma from them even cheaper than from CUNY and I won't have to raise the taxes to do it.

"[H]iring more minorities will further its goal ó pursued through a variety of questionable means over the past three years ó of creating an ideologically homogeneous faculty."

I find it to be a fairly racist assumption to believe that minority = ideology. Is the assumption, then, that all minorities are ideologically different than the white males who must prove their "commitment to furthering diversity"?

What, then, do we do with conservative (the meaning of which has been discussed here in depth) minorities? Sweep them under the rug and pretend there are not any in order to further this agenda?

I wonder what the former provost of Stanford University would have to say about this. Of course, she's moved on to a post in the current Washington administration, so undoubtedly her word would be suspect.

dick,
my cuny degree has served me pretty well and enabled me to get through my phd (from a highly-ranked, non-cuny, and rather right-leaning school) without ever having to worry about student debt. most of my cuny classmates are likewise doing quite well in top law schools and phd programs around the country - schools they could not have dreamed of going to without access to a fine undergraduate program that would neither drain their finances nor prevent them from pursuing full-time work and school simultaneously.
furthermore, nyc taxes would be high regardless - cuny's share of the total city budget is hardly a burden to taxpayers.

"nyc taxes would be high regardless - cuny's share of the total city budget is hardly a burden to taxpayers."

To paraphrase the immortal words of Everett Dirksen: a million here, a million there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money. NYC's municipal workforce is an eighth the size of the federal government's, to serve a population orders of magnitude smaller. I certainly never meant my comment to be understood as either the only or the primary way to reduce that burden: eliminating rent control (which would cause a residential building boom) and selling off vacant city properties would really be the first places to start.

Moreover, I didn't suggest doing away with all of CUNY, just Brooklyn College.

Mo, do you seriously believe that BC is going to hire conservative minorities? The Roberta Matthews of the world attack them as "oreos" and "race traitors." This is about power and ideological conformity. The PC crowd just hides behind racial "diversity" to get their like minded cronies a tax supported sinecure.

It is the race quotas of the neo-Marxists that view all minorities as just interchangable ciphers. Conservative minority scholars have to find work in the same place as white male conservatives, in private think tanks.

The extremists who control BC come from the John Kerry generation, who vowed back in the 60s to take over the universities. And they kept their word. They also vowed to take over the government, and this November they aim to keep their word again.