Newsletter

January 2003

UT Conference Announcement

Aimed at “university administrators,
faculty, staff, and students who wonder about equity and diversity issues…the
purpose of the conference is to change perceptions of what is possible
with respect to achieving equity and to establish a dialogue between university
policy makers and those who live these policies.” (From Program Abstract)

Several SAFS members have
organized a panel session that challenges the favorable assumptions of
equity policies that permeate this conference. Arguably, the SAFS
panel will be the only one to argue explicitly that faculty hiring practices
demanded by equity policies are harmful to universities.

The title of the SAFS members’
panel is: The moral bankruptcy of diversity/equity hiring policies for
university faculty: Empirical, logical, and ethical considerations.

In this session, speakers
will present some empirical, logical, and ethical considerations that support
the view that faculty hiring should be based solely on academic merit,
and that the only kind of diversity a university should be promoting is
the diversity of opinions, which can be defended on rational rather than
emotive grounds. The speakers and the titles of their presentations
are:

• John Furedy (Chair), University
  of Toronto: Empirical analyses of institutional hiring policies
  as revealed in the phrasing of Canadian and American tenure-stream advertisements.

• Philip Sullivan, University
  of Toronto: Use and abuse of ‘systemic discrimination’ in universities’
  commitment to excellence.

• Doreen Kimura, Simon Fraser
  University: Misguided ‘equity’ programs in Canada.

• Clive Seligman, University
  of Western Ontario: Ten reasons why preferential faculty hiring
  is bad for universities.

Conference website: http://www.utoronto.ca/equity/eeconf.htm

The SAFS panel session is
scheduled for Saturday, March 22, 1:45 to 3:15.