Union Leader Editorial:St. Anselm gets diverse: A college gone adrift
St. Anselm College in Goffstown is falling for the diversity myth, which is that the physical and behavioral attributes of students and faculty are the measure by which colleges and universities can be judged diverse.
The small, Roman Catholic college (student body, 1,879) has hired a new "assistant to the president for inclusiveness." It is pushing a new "inclusiveness" initiative that includes hiring more minorities as faculty and staff members and bringing in more minority students. The obvious question is: Why?
St. Anselm officials say that ethnic and racial minorities make up 4.3 percent of the student body and 5 percent of the freshman class. That's actually higher than the percentage in the New Hampshire population as a whole. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, minorities make up only 4 percent of the New Hampshire population.
This pursuit of diversity is supposed to enhance the learning environment on campus. But history has shown us that it is predominantly used as a tool of indoctrination, not education. Extensive experience on Southern campuses has shown that, in fact, minority students rarely socialize with white students, and vice versa. The excuse that it is a valuable learning tool is not borne out by experience. But colleges still pursue "diversity" because of the immense political pressure to do so.
We have seen signs in recent years that St. Anselm is losing its moorings. It is a Benedictine liberal arts school. That is its mission, its reason for being. But lately it is acting more and more like a secular college pursuing the same socially liberal policies as every other secular college.
Its new diversity push is the latest sign (following its move to co-ed dormitories last year) that St. Anselm is changing in ways that, ironically, will mean fewer choices for area high school graduates.
St. Anselm's pursuit of on-campus diversity as marked by physical and behavioral attributes -- race, ethnicity, sexuality -- will result in less diversity from college to college in New Hampshire. St. Anselm has always offered something different from the modern, socially liberal university experience available nearly everywhere else. It has offered its students the chance to attend college in an environment in which Roman Catholic teachings, not the dominant culture, hold sway, and in which thought is valued more highly than skin color.
But if St. Anselm is going to marginalize white and straight students and ignore Catholic doctrine in pursuit of the secular goal of "inclusiveness," it will remove itself from the short list of institutions of higher learning that provide refuge from the anything-goes, accept-all-lifestyles attitude that dominates modern college campuses.
Diversity in higher education ought to mean that colleges, such as St. Anselm, can remain true to their missions and be a beacon for students who want a college that offers a more traditional educational environment and not an indoctrination in modern liberal social theory.
Were it not for the cartelization of the university system, this type of thing would hardly go on. They’d be centers of vocational training and little more.
ping
Here is the answer on how to get more diversity. Just lower your standards more. Diversity will come soon enough and oh, by the way, be ready to give in to every demand diverse students bring with them. It would be racist not to.
“So when I needed a neurosurgeon to operate on my brain tumor I said to my wife, “Let’s find a person of color or disability or altered sexual identity to operate rather than trying to find the best neurosurgeon in the world based on his knowledge and experience. What I really need now that I’m facing a life-threatening illness is a more DIVERSE doctor............” Duh?
“Alyssa McClure, a 2008 graduate, said she did not like the inclusiveness program because she thinks it is similar to affirmative action.
“I don’t see the point in having a program designed to bring minorities in,” McClure said. “We are the second most white state in the nation.”
Instead, she thought the college should focus on “academics and Catholic identity.”
I have a suggestion. Maybe the administration of St. Anselm’s should stop chasing its tail and beating its breast to be recognized as a school where diversity rules and just go back to its original mission as a Roman Catholic college. If St. Anselm’s can’t do this it should close. This student has hit the nail on the head, they should listen to her.