Diversity or Bust

There's a piece in today's Chronicle of Higher Education which glows with admiration for the tenacious, aggressive and ultimately successful efforts of Rochester Institute of Technology to "diversify" its faculty. What stands out in particular for me is the driven, fixed obsession with skin color or the other categories of "diversity" you presently find among large sectors of the academy, and the extraordinary lengths to which institutions are willing to go in pursuit of the prized "diversity" hires. Some good discussion follows in the comments thread, especially from our friend Roger Clegg at CEO and John Rosenberg who often comments on academic affirmative action policies from his blog. A number of the comments make for interesting reading, although one of them takes an unfortunate cheap shot at Roger and CEO. It's useful, though, as an example of the mindset which lies back of the relentless pursuit of "diversity" in and out of the academy today.