By The Editors

As the warmer weather approaches, the University’s landscape will soon resemble a Crayola box, but in the offices of the top administrators, white remains the dominant color.

While women have broken the glass ceiling and entered the ranks of the senior administration, minorities have failed to land one of the top ten executive positions at the University.The need to add diversity to campuses, has been a concern at many colleges, including the University, since the days of racial integration. While today there are scholarships and finanical aid available to encourage minority students to seek higher education, incentives for hiring minority professors and administrators is lacking. As a result, the composition of the student body has become more diverse and interesting. On the contrary, the make-up of the leaders shaping the course of liberal education has barely progressed.

At the University, there are currently no minorities working in the senior administration and only a small number within the faculty. In response to this problem, the University has taken several steps to encourage diversity among its employees.

One involves providing assistance to new professors who struggle to find their footing on Long Island. Vice Provost Liora Schmelkin said many minority professors are reluctant to apply to the University, because they can not afford the costs of living on Long Island. To compensate for this problem, Provost Herman Berliner has leased two off-campus houses for new professors who can not afford to purchase property on Long Island during their first two years at the University.

This is one of the best proposals to fixing the lack of diversity on campus, because it provides opportunities to minority applicants, but does not affect the selection process. It is similar to the financial assistance that is provided to minority students, because it lifts them up and evens the playing field so they can compete against wealthier, typically white, applicants. However, in the end the most qualified candidate should receive the job.

The second, and most significant effort to mix up the homogenous ethnic pool in the administration and faculty, is the adoption of a new diversity policy. Members of the faculty and administration unanimously approved the policy in October and it is to be applied in the selection of applicants to fill vacancies in faculty and administrative positions.

According to Carole Ferrand, the speaker of the faculty, Provost Herman Berliner assured “… the Diversity Policy will be followed by clear and real procedures to put in place the mission of increased diversity among faculty.” However, Ferrand did not disclose the details of these “procedures,” saying it is more a statement than an actual policy.

It’s difficult to discern what this actual means to those who apply to the University. Perhaps, this is a way for the University to express its desire to become more diverse without implementing strict guidelines and quotas. Or perhaps, they are trying to include race as a factor in the decision process, without receiving flack for discrimination against well-qualified white applicants.

Either way, the pressure to show the University is a melting pot is interfering with selecting the best candidates, which should be evaluated by qualifications.

Hiring employees of different races, cultures and creeds is essential to enhancing the quality of liberal education, because diversity among those who shape the agenda in the classrooms and in the board room, helps expose students to a variety of ideas and perspectives.

Should the University part from judging applicants solely on their educational backgrounds and accomplishments, it should be for the sake of providing students with the best education, not trying to be politically correct. And if the University truly wants to expose students to a wide range of ideas, then they should probably question an applicant’s political affiliation, before looking at which box he or she checked under ethnicity.

While it is easier to spot a lack of ethnic diversity, the political slant of a college is much less visible to the eye, but has a greater impact on students than whether their professor is white, black, Hispanic or Chinese.

While studies show that a college education tends to have a liberalizing effect on students, the ratio of liberal to conservative professors should never be so dramatic that it appears the foundation of the campus causes even the buildings to tilt to the left.

It may seem outlandish to hire a professor based on their political stance, but it is no more discriminatory that using skin color as a deciding factor.