Inside Higher Ed reports that the administration at Colgate University has asked departments to rearrange their priorities for hiring faculty, specifically, to place ethnic and gender diversity concerns above match of candidates with the subfield specialties needed.
Stanley Brubaker, a professor of political science who in the past called for more diversity of political thought at the university, rightly objects that this shuffling of criteria is contrary both to the law and sound university academic policy.
[D]iversity should be something that tips the balance and is not a primary consideration,” Brubaker said. Regarding subfields, he stated that “it is very important that a department has a coherent curriculum that emphasizes what’s important in the discipline and it should not be diverted from that by other considerations.”