Red Alert Politics

University of Louisville’s job posting asks for only certain races to apply

By Rebecca Downs
Published December 17, 2015 7:13pm ET
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When it comes to their demands, the most common from student protesters involves the hiring of more diverse faculty.

While it may seem like a thoughtful idea, diversity doesn’t work so well when it’s forced. The proof comes from a since taken down job posting at the University of Louisville. As Insider Higher Ed reported, whites and Asians were excluded for an opening position for the physics and astronomy department.

While the posting claimed to be an “equal opportunity employer,” it didn’t stop there. Also mentioned was that “the Department of Physics and Astronomy announces a tenure-track assistant professor position that will be filled by an African-American, Hispanic American or a Native American Indian [sic].”

The ad was taken down after a complaint, though not for the reason you’d think. According to C.S. Jayanthi, the department’s chair, someone mentioned that there were no preferences for those with disabilities. After the complaint was forwarded to administrators, “the ad was promptly removed.”

While those with disabilities should rightfully not be excluded against, why is it any better to exclude whites or Asians?

Not surprisingly, Inside Higher Ed also points to how legal issues have been raised over the job posting:

Michael A. Olivas is the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Houston Law Center and director of its Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance and former general counsel for the American Association of University Professors. As Olivias sees it, a better question over whether it was legal is if it was effective, with the answer being not at all.

Still, the university tried to defend itself, including by pointing to their diversity vision statement. A spokeswoman, Cindy Hess, also said that the university:

… strives to attract candidates representing the labor market availability percentage for women and minorities in those job groups where underutilization has been identified. We are committed to exercising all good faith efforts to recruit women or minorities in job groups at rates which are at least equivalent to their availability in the labor market.

Jayanthi also defended the ad, and as Inside Higher Ed puts it, “she wondered how the department was supposed to attract minority candidates without explicitly saying so in the job ad.”

In writing for the College Fix, Jennifer Kabbany opines:

That illustrates the real priorities of leftist campus leaders. They don’t want to hire the best candidate for the job, whatever that person may look like (and who cares, anyway?). They want to advance their leftist platitudes on diversity, regardless of what is best for students.

Indeed. Forced attempts at diversity not only face legal problems, but make the school look dumb and ineffective. Is this what the student protesters really want?