Harbaugh Questions Diversity Effort, Officially Becomes Frohnmayer Nemesis
Bill Harbaugh is at it again. Having already filed ethics complaints against President Frohnmayer, to protest Johnson Hall’s unwillingness to release (public) Affirmative Action plan documents, the maverick economics professor is now questioning the legality of the UO’s “Underrepresented Minority Recruitment Program,” according to this story in the ODE today.
At question this time around is a recruitment program, which is described by the ODE as follows:
The UMRP is a $500,000-a-year program University administrators implemented in hopes of recruiting top-tier minority faculty to campus. It encourages departments to hire underrepresented minority faculty in tenure-related faculty positions by reimbursing the department for recruitment expenses. These perks, meant to draw potential faculty members, can amount to as much as $90,000 during a minimum of three years.
Harbaugh’s claim is that this compensation is a violation of the 14th Ammendment, and the Civil Rights Act, because it compensates faculty recruits solely based on their self identification as one of the federally listed, underrepresented classes. Frohnmayer is defending the programs legality, on the basis that it gives the money to departments, who then give it to the recruits, effectively bypassing Administration agency, and because the money becomes available only after the candidate is hired.
To further defend the program, the ODE trots out a few quotes from MCC advisor Steve Morozumi, to the effect that Harbaugh is an inveterate racist who is afraid of a diverse campus. Claiming that Harbaugh “holds a grudge about last year’s passage of the Diversity Plan,” Morozumi continued,
“I don’t think he has any understanding of history and the actual conditions that exist for people in the real world. There’s more of a good faith effort developing as a result of persistent efforts to get the University to recognize that we are behind the times in keeping pace with the rest of the world. Now we’re just beginning to move and so there’s some reason for hope, and that’s what’s alarming him.”
I don’t know Harbaugh that well, but I did interview him about his issues with the diversity building process on campus in this years Don’t Drink The Kool Aid Issue, available here, and Morozumi’s analysis seems waaay off. Then again, Morozumi is of the “not being a racist costs money” school of thought, while Harbaughs approach to diversity is considerably more nuanced. Harbaugh has real, credible critiques of the diversity-building process on this campus, as well as an alternative diversity plan, which can be accessed at oregondiversityplan.com. What makes Harbaugh take on the sacred cow of diversity, when everyone else is happy to just give or receive money and pretend like it solves the problem? I honestly have no idea, but this is certainly one of the most important debates we can have, and I’m glad that someone is asking questions.
