Actual versus Superficial “Diversity”

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a commentary piece titled, “Want More Innovation?  Get More Diversity.”  As you would expect, it is a plea for universities to hire more African American faculty, in particular, because diversity in background and perspective will (according to some dubious data) result in more creative and innovative thinking.  The piece concludes that since “even if people from different backgrounds have exactly the same skills and knowledge, diverse teams may still do better than more homogeneous ones,” therefore administrators should “[s]top hiring people who look like you.”  My posted response: Three obvious problems with this (there …

Yale launches five-year, $50 million initiative to increase faculty diversity

Some Advice for University Officials — and Happy Thanksgiving!

Roger CleggEducation

Each campus protest is different, and the demands in each are different, too. Some are illegal (racial quotas for faculty hiring), some are themselves otherwise racist and divisive (demands of acknowledgment of “white privilege”), some might even be worth considering (though even a reasonable demand should not be considered if violently or otherwise illegally made). But here’s an easy one from Dartmouth: If protestors assault other students and deliberately keep them from studying — the only thing students are really supposed to have to do at a university — then the president should call in the police, and the thugs …

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The Washington Post’s Not-So-Fine Op-Ed

Roger CleggEducation

An op-ed in the Washington Post recently calls on K–12 schools to improve their racial and ethnic mixes in order to close academic achievement gaps — most specifically, that is, to help black students learn better by making sure they go to schools with plenty of white students in them. It’s a fine op-ed, except for just a few problems:  The terms “integration” and “segregation” are not defined, which is a problem since they are typically misdefined by liberals, as a matter of both law and policy. There is no discussion of where the racial achievement gaps might come from, which is …

Madness in the Groves of Academe

Roger CleggEducation

I recently participated, at ScotusBlog’s kind invitation, in its symposium on the Fisher II case, and you can read my contribution to it here.  There were no surprises in the arguments made in favor of the University of Texas’s racial discrimination in student admissions, but I did want to address briefly one particularly outrageous claim, since I’ve seen it made elsewhere.  The argument was (and variations on it have been) made that, if you oppose universities’ giving a preference on the basis of race or ethnicity, it follows that “if an applicant wrote an admissions essay about volunteering for an …

Getting serious about racial discrimination

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

That’s the title I gave this essay, which I was invited to write for ScotusBlog and which was posted last week.  Here it is: In my contribution to this symposium, I’m going to discuss how the Supreme Court should apply “strict scrutiny” to the use of racial and ethnic preferences in university admissions.  I will assume here that the door will be left ajar for this kind of discrimination, but must note briefly at the outset that I think the door should be shut on it, as I discussed at more length in the symposium for Fisher v. University of …

Politically Correct Discrimination in Silicon Valley and in the Groves of Academe

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

There was an article in the Washington Post a few days ago about Silicon Valley’s “diversity problem.”  The problem is that there aren’t enough minority workers there, if you define “minority” to exclude Asians of course.  But, have no fear, companies are trying hard to remedy this deficiency by hiring more African Americans and Latinos, under pressure from the likes of Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Well, actually there is something to fear here.  It is illegal to sort, hire, and promote people based on race, color, or national origin, as I testified to the U.S. Equal Employment …

Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz

Starbucks Announces New Effort to Break the Law

Roger CleggEmployment

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Starbucks Corp. is teaming up with more than a dozen companies in a commitment to increase hiring of young, minority workers over the next three years.”  It’s unclear from the article exactly how race and ethnicity are to be used in the hiring process.  The definition of “minority” is also not spelled out, though as is often the case some minorities seem to be more equal than others (blacks and Latinos are mentioned, but no one else).   Nor is it clear what the justification is for this nonsense. Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz …

Minority Access to Higher Education

Roger CleggEducation

Last week I testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights at their two-day event on minority access to higher education.  The Commission, which is now dominated 6-2 by liberals, deserves credit for inviting me, since I certainly did not tell the Commissioners what most of them wanted to hear.  Below is a summary of my statement; I’ve deleted the numerous legal and social-science citations, but you can read the full statement here. Introduction.  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Roger Clegg, and I am president and general counsel of the …

Testimony of CEO president and general counsel Roger Clegg before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights regarding “Minority Access to Higher Education”

CEO StaffEducation

Testimony of CEO president and general counsel Roger Clegg before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights regarding “Minority Access to Higher Education” Related posts: TESTIMONY OF ROGER CLEGG, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL, CENTER FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BEFORE THE U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT Testimony of CEO president and general counsel Roger Clegg before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights regarding “Minority Access to Higher Education” Minority Access to Higher Education Roger Clegg testifies regarding H.R. 40

The Court Should Grant Review (Again) in the Fisher Case

Roger CleggEducation

Earlier this year, the lawyers for Abigail Fisher asked the Supreme Court to grant review — again — of her lawsuit challenging the University of Texas’s use of racial and ethnic preferences in its admissions. The Court will consider whether to grant Fisher’s request at its conference on Thursday this week (May 21 — though I caution that sometimes the Court doesn’t decide immediately on what it will do).  The Center for Equal Opportunity has joined and helped write a brief filed by Pacific Legal Foundation that highlights CEO’s work in this area and that urges the Court to grant …