Following student protests, the President of Pomona College has acceded to a long list of demands from blacks and other “marginalized” students, according to a report in the Claremont Independent, a magazine covering the Claremont McKenna consortium of colleges in Claremont, California. President David Oxtoby reportedly signed off on demands that include the following:
- A diversity and inclusivity chair
- Increased funding for mental health on campus
- Full-time counselors trained in gay and transsexual issues
- At least half of all tenure-track faculty positions go to underrepresented groups by 2025-2056
- A new Native American and Indigenous studies department
- Students to get representation in hiring the next CMC Dean of Students
- President Oxtoby must hold meetings with a list of aggrieved groups on campus, including undocumented students and “any other affinity groups that feel the need for a meeting.“
After repeated attempts over 9 hours to reach the communications office at Pomona in an effort to verify the Claremont Independent report, Mark Kendall, Director of News and Strategic Content emailed this message: “A more accurate characterization would be that he agreed to respond by Nov. 24.” A follow-up email from MTC : “What does that mean?” drew no response.
Just to clarify: Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a separate institution. The President of Pomona College would have no say in the hiring of the CMC dean.
My alma mater. Ranked #1 US college/university by Forbes this year. Under no circumstances should Oxtoby accede to the mob. Pomona has the 5th largest endowment per student. Ill-advised actions could jeopardize alumni support.
Compared to what some student groups are demanding, this doesn’t really seem all that bad. A few rainbow unicorns, and, of course, lost of things that will cost some money, but much of what they want is provided by other expensive schools of Pamona’s caliber.
Diversity and inclusion officer-it’s getting pretty standard
Increased funding for mental health-I am personally quite ambivalent about campus mental health, especially now that so many insurance plans cover private mental health. Campus mental health center staff are university employees. Ask the University of Oregon how that one is working out. Still, beefing up mental health services on campus is pretty routine.
Counselors trained in gay and trans issues-setting aside my personal grievance that this fails to acknowledge that bisexuals are a distinct category (tee hee!!), I think it would be very easy to find gay/trans-issue trained counselors who would be happy to work at a university
Half of all tenure-track faculty positions going to underrepresented groups: Not. Going. To. Happen. And it it is not a realistic demand. The only caveat is that there are so few tenure track job offers these days that it might be easier than I think. But in any case, hiring should not be constrained by demands that are so divorced from reality.
Native American Studies department-Personally, not a big fan of “studies” departments, but this is pretty par for the course at expensive liberal arts colleges
Student representation at Dean of Students hiring-when appropriately managed (representatives are vetted, not so much for opinions as for professionalism and leadership potential, student voice is not over-represented), this is just good practice, and an educational opportunity for students
President meeting with people-again, just good practice, and an educational opportunity for students
So this is it, then? The domino effect, one university after another falling as it capitulates to the demands of a bunch of spoiled, narcissistic “victims”?
Pathetic.