An individual who I thought got a raw deal and was completely misunderstood, when he gave his speech.
As far as I can tell he’s done well for himself since then, but that’s because he already had a network of connections.
One misconstrued speech was all it took to ruin a chance to lead a premier east coast uni.
The idiocy of that conversational arc is basically the point I’m trying to make.
Now I’m responding to the assertion to that one doesn’t need to be of a certain stripe to make it in liberal institutions.
You downplay and say that a Harvard pres. position is highly political; which is fair, but the reaction also shows that a pervasive and intolerant groupthink is present.
It may tolerate the odd dissenting professor, especially if they’re protected by tenure, but the buck stops there.
No such protections for students first making their way into the world.
Not exactly a bastion of free thought and discourse.
What _you_ and Harvard in general think of as a wide variety of political viewpoints, and what _actually_ constitutes a wide variety, are likely very different things.
I know well what a wide variety of political viewpoints looks like, because I’ve lived in at least three extremes. Have you?
Harvard’s faculty is left of center in aggregate (did I ever say otherwise?) but they aren’t uniformly radical and there are a lot of moderates and conservatives in the ranks.
I can't speak to all of Harvard's departments, but I know it's completely possible to have a wide variety of political viewpoints in SEAS. The faculty itself is probably to the right of the immediately surrounding community (that that this means much in Boston Metro, but I think it's probably true in the case of SEAS).
> UC requires a mandatory "diversity statement" for faculty job applications:
Diversity statements typically focus on a certain type of service and teaching activity.
The "how it effects my teaching and advising" part of the statement could talk about making special efforts in your teaching to help first generation college students, or supporting students who aren't neurotypical, or being really good at working with the specific circumstances of students who come from non-traditional backgrounds (eg adult learners).
The outreach/service portion of the statement could discuss bringing resources to underserved rural communities. Or providing learning opportunities for prisoners. Or a million other things.
Source: actually did this. Got job offers.
The fact that you think writing a "diversity statement" means you have to fit a certain political mold says a lot more about what you think diversity means than about diversity statement requirements. The diversity statement is about proving that you can at the very least create an inclusive learning environment for people from non-traditional backgrounds. Why in god's name should this be political, or in fact not a requirement for a teacher?
Comparing diversity statements to statements of religious faith is absurd. If you can't write a page about eg helping autism spectrum students succeed in CS 1, and someone else can, then you might not be the best candidate for a CS 1 lecturer. Opinions on the Westminster Catechism, on the other hand, are not relevant to teaching students about linked lists.