<p>"But we MUST treat people equally. Some parents read to their kids and challenge them, others plop them in front of the TV or ignore them. The first kids have an UNFAIR advantage in college admission and job search. They "aren't equal"--is that what you say? So we can't have a meritocracy?"</p>
<p>Hmm, and people who are born smart have an unfair advantage too. It isn't fair that some kids are born smart and some kids are born stupid either ;)</p>
<p>Northstarmom and others, I apologize for the word "idiocy" in 38. I should have said "lunacy", of course a bit tongue in cheek (but also serious).</p>
<p>Of course, NSM, the whole civil rights movement was about the unfairness of the regime up through the 1950's. And after paying a HUGE price, the right side won. But don't forget the terms of the debate: Hubert Humphrey said if the Civil Rights Act ever meant quotas, he'd eat the paper it was written on.</p>
<p>People pretend they want diversity, because the Supremes long ago banned AA to make up for past wrongs. But deep down in their hearts, that's what people want. And it's unconstitutional. Sorry!!</p>
<p>Diversity is okay, but it's not worth discriminating against people because of their race. Gotta find another legal way to diversify.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Because people still aren't equal.
Girls still don't get the encouragement to go into math and science careers that guys do.
Girls also don't get the academic encouragement that guys do. For instance, there was a fairly recent study that said that teachers tend to praise girls about the neatness of their homework, while guys are praised about the content. As a result, guess who's most likely to develop critical thinking skills and the confidence in those skills.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Im all for equal opportunity, not social engineering. Of course people who look differently will be treated differently. Tall people will have an extra advantage in leadership positions. Nerdy looking people will be treated as nerds. Jocks will be treated as jocks. And girls will be treated differently than boys. </p>
<p>But this society was built on equal opportunity not equal representation. Now it is not that way anymore. Due to innate differences coupled with social influence there will always be different ratios of men and women in different fields. In the college level women outnumber men in the humanities, education, and social sciences. Where are the programs to help men in those fields?</p>
<p>Support, I think a nation-wide program is absolutely needed to help boys since girls outnumber far in colleges</p>
<p>First, all presidential appointments to places like Harvard and Princeton will always be noted by the press because of the high profiles of those institutions. It's up to the media to find the spin to make it into an interesting story. Yes, this IS an interesting story.</p>
<p>Faust's presumed appointment and her gender is noteworthy is because she is a first. Her presidency will prove that another glass ceiling has been shattered. After this, I'm sure that the press won't take notice of the gender of future Harvard presidential appointments. </p>
<p>As a side note, I love Faust's last name, for all that it implies. Like Smith College's president Judith Christ, the potential for headlines is just waiting to be exploited. :-)</p>
<p>This is not big news.... Especially noting the other schools that already have female presidents. Penn, in fact, has has back-to-back female presidents. Brown not only has a female president, but a Black female president. I don't care how famous Harvard is. This is nothing new... for its peer group that is.</p>
<p>What is news and I mean GOOD news is that the Ivy league and other Super schools are shifting towards women in power. Count the Deans, count the administration, count the gatekeepers (Admissions) and they are mostly women and the new diversity group "LGBT". Admissions decisions will reflect a trend and so will curriculum to accomodate the population- "green haired admissions" (read politicall progressive rather than simply artistic). Ultimately in 20 yrs NO MORE OLD BOY NETWORK. That is what is news, THE TREND is news. And I am certain the academic high level retreats where decisions are made and favors exchanged just like in any other business now favor those 2 previously maligned diversity groups of people. And this is why President Faust is news. And where there is power there is money. Hopefully President Faust will hire more women Deans and fill in her administration and Admissions office in the same way groundbreaking and courageous President Tilghman has chosen to do. Serving as President is not enough one must have a strategic social plan that is implemented for the long term in order to succeed and make the appointment worthwhile. I am certain she has her priorities in line with the other female Presidents.</p>
<p>"But this society was built on equal opportunity not equal representation."</p>
<p>No, this society was built on equal opportunity -- for well off, connected white males.</p>
<p>The US has never been built on equal opportunity for all. If it had been built on equal opportunity, blacks and women would have from the beginning of this country have had full constitutional rights including being able to vote, own property, hold public office, serve on juries, obtain any job or opportunity that they had the skills for or the intelligence to do.</p>
<p>Even as a child, I realized that the Pledge of Allegience was a lie:" with liberty and justice for all" simply didn't exist. I grew up while blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities were still legally discriminated against. However, evennow there isn't liberty and justice for all. To verify this, just look at the kind of legal representation impoverished people get. Also check out the disparity in sentencing that people of color get compared to whites who are convicted of the same crimes.</p>
<p>Perhaps we should have more Canadian female presidents like President Tilghman of Princeton. Looking outside our borders for Female/ LGBT leadership would be a good start.</p>
<p>Just in: <a href="http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/02.15/99-president.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/02.15/99-president.html</a></p>
<p>Thankfully, we're moving closer to liberty and justice for all. When the University of Michigan persisted in discriminating in admissions, the people of the blue state of Michigan--against the advice of the elites in both parties and academia--voted overwhelmingly in November to stop the unfairness. U of M and Coleman toyed with resisting the law, but cool heads prevailed and the people and fairness won a round!</p>
<p>Congratulations to Harvard! Its about time Cambridge Jr. gets its act together, and maybe the ridiculously restive faculty will stop terrorizing the school administration for once, especially because her name is Faust, a really good name for a master of academia (yikes). </p>
<p>Both male and female executives can be equally tolerant, skilled, and expedient. Its great that so many Ivy League presidents are women, but just because that is true doesn't mean the school will be run well. </p>
<p>Shirley Tilghman has made some mistakes already here at Princeton, and they will start showing the April after next. However, overall I'm pretty satisfied with her presidency (after all, she IS my intro. cell bio professor).
However, it doesn't help the elites of the Y-Chromosome when Columbia is hitting the skids under Lee Bollinger. Talk about being blackballed for political speakers. No politician will have much good to say about the Ivy in New York.</p>
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<p>Shirley Tilghman has made some mistakes already here at Princeton, and they will start showing the April after next.</p>
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<p>to what do you refer, ending ED? that wasn't really a tilghman-only call.</p>
<p>"Princeton's decision was made by Tilghman, Dean of Admission Janet Lavin Rapelye and Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel. It follows a series of annual reviews in recent years that have included assessments of the impact of early admission programs. The decision to end Princeton's early program was discussed at length this past weekend by the Board of Trustees at its regularly scheduled September meetings. The trustees expressed strong support for the decision."</p>
<p>Point taken, f.scottie. You are very right that it was a decision that was mostly weighed in by the Board of Trustees, but I still think its a bad decision.</p>
<p>would it be breaking news if it was a man? "breaking news! Havard president a MAN!"</p>
<p>I agree it was a mistake to retire ED fscottie and Tokyorevelation9 . But It was Dean Janet alone not President Tilghman who ordered that mistake. Do not believe every press release. Dean Janet enjoys her rank let us say.</p>
<p>i never said it was a mistake. it was a courageous move, and i applauded it at the time. i am just disappointed that yale and others have declined to follow suit in the months since. as for the wiseness of the move, well, i think it will be a year or two before that can be assessed.</p>
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<p>Shirley Tilghman has made some mistakes already here at Princeton, and they will start showing the April after next.</p>
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<p>"to what do you refer, ending ED? that wasn't really a tilghman-only call."</p>
<p>Sorry I responded to the above conversation no harm intended.</p>
<p>From The Washington Post. The writer is a Harvard grad.</p>
<p>"Seeds of Leadership on a Va. Farm
As a Girl, Harvard Chief Urged Change</p>
<p>By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 12, 2007; Page B01MILLWOOD, Va. -- Exactly 50 years ago, a Girl Scout living on a farm near this Clarke County town 60 miles from Washington penned a letter to the White House. It was a time of rising racial tension in Virginia and the country. Drew Gilpin, without telling her parents, decided to seek help from the president.</p>
<p>"Dear Mr. Eisenhower," she wrote in careful block letters, "I am nine years old and I am white, but I have many feelings about segregation."</p>
<p>The child's plea for an end to the separation of the races, so at odds with what she heard at home and at her all-white Millwood school, was forever fixed in her memory as she became a leading scholar on the Civil War South and an advocate for a bigger role in national life for minorities and women.</p>
<p>She has reflected on the Feb. 12, 1957, letter often in speeches, books and articles as one of the first signs that she was instinctually opposed to the social and political conventions of her day and felt a lifelong need to change them...."
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/11/AR2007021100480.html?referrer=emailarticle%5B/url%5D">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/11/AR2007021100480.html?referrer=emailarticle</a></p>
<p>It is just sad, sad, sad that the faculty of Harvard insisted in tossing overboard middle-of-the-road (actually rather liberal) Summers for a hard left feminist. The school is gradually losing its edge over all the others...</p>