Regular readers of this website are familiar with the disturbing direction of California State University Chico (CSU Chico), its now infamous “diversity plan” and the mania that has infected it administrators as described in 2, Attack of the Giant Plethora3, $600 for “Teaching to Diversity” at CSU Chico4 and from Diversity to Sustainability: How Campus Ideology Is Born5.
Recently, an old CSU Chico colleague insisted that I read President Zingg’s February 2011 announcement6, in which Zingg proclaimed the existence of an overriding “Diversity Imperative”. Being familiar with Zingg’s writing style, I immediately noticed that the tone, language, and sentence construction were not characteristic of Zingg. I easily determined that Zingg had “borrowed” the title and some sentences without attribution, and closely paraphrased others sections from an internet source, specifically the “Access & Diversity Tool Kit 7”. The first subtitle of that document is “The Diversity Imperative: The Compelling Case”.
The website that Zingg has borrowed liberally from belongs to the American Council on Education (ACE), and from the webpage of that organization one can link to a variety of their “Diversity, Equity and Gender” publications with titles such as Race-Conscious Financial Aid and Other Diversity-Enhancing Programs8 and The Chief Diversity Officer: A Primer For College And University Presidents9. Such offerings clearly expose the ACE as an enemy of admission systems free of race, ethnicity and gender considerations and of merit-based admissions criteria.< o:p>
By liberally borrowing from the “Access & Diversity Tool Kit”, President Zingg has unwittingly drawn attention to the bible of his diversity mania and has unmasked his true intent. It appears that the sole purpose of this Tool Kit is to provide verbiage with which to advocate for an admissions system based on de facto race, ethnic and gender quotas.
It was only in September 2010 that Zingg publicly claimed “We (CSU Chico) do not give special consideration to applicants because of their race/ethnicity”2. Now in this announcement, Zingg attempts to justify the implementation of race and ethnicity based special admission considerations. Zing wrote “As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), upholding the right of the
Typically condescending of the applicable law, Zingg makes no mention of California Proposition 209, the amendment to the state constitution that prohibits public institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity in any admission or hiring decision by a public institution or organization.
Zingg’s so called diversity plan is not merely an effort to ensure equal access and opportunity. Zingg even admitted this when he wrote, “we must go beyond providing access and fostering inclusion, beyond ensuring a climate of respect and civility”. You might ask “What is beyond access, inclusion, respect and civility?” The answer is de facto quotas. Zingg’s plan is really focused on restricting the opportunity of some individual to attend CSU Chico via de facto race, ethnicity and gender quotas cynically disguised as recruiting goals, and discriminatory recruiting practices disguised as outreach.
Also in his announcement, Zingg continues to subtly promulgate the divisive and race-baiting concept of supposed white privilege, a documented theme in the CSU Chico continuing indoctrination campaign10. Specifically, Zingg wrote that CSU Chico “must focus on closing achievement gaps and attaining greater equity in educational outcomes between historically under-represented and under-served student groups in higher education and those which are not”. Of course you can’t have under-served and under-represented groups, unless you have an over-served and over-represented group. The “those which are not” which Zingg refers to are white people, who are the supposedly over-served and over-represented population who are targeted for reduction by subtle and not-so-subtle discrimination.
Are any of Zingg’s efforts really about improving academic achievement or academic standards at CSU Chico as he claimed in the previous quote? Apparently not for Zingg wrote, “This does not mean, of course, that everyone attains the same level of achievement as everyone else. Rather, it means that everyone has an authentic opportunity to reach their own highest level of achievement consistent with their own abilities and efforts”. Imagine that, a university diploma for everyone regardless of their actual accomplishments.
Douglas G. Campbell retired in 2009 from California State University, Chico, where he taught in the Department of Recreation and Hospitality Management for 18 years. He now teaches management and economics at
References
1. What Happened? Academic Freedom at a Christian College, Chico State’s Diversity Action Plan, Counseling Student Opposed by ACLU, February 17, 2011, by Ashley Thorne, available at
2. Diversity Babble, November 19, 2010 By Douglas Campbell, available at http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?Doc_Id=1658
3. Attack of the Giant Plethora, April 22, 2010, Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne, available at http://www.nas.org/poldoc.cfm?doc_id=1283
4. $600 for “Teaching to Diversity” at CSU Chico, October 15, 2010, by Ashley Thorne, available at http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?Doc_Id=1602
5. From Diversity to Sustainability: How Campus Ideology Is Born, October 3, 2010, by Peter Wood, available at http://chronicle.com/article/From-Diversity-to/124773
6. The Diversity Imperative,
7. Access & Diversity Tool Kit. Available at http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=CAREE&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=35303
8. Race-Conscious Financial Aid and Other Diversity-Enhancing Programs (2005), by Martin Michaelson, marketed by ACE at: http://store.acenet.edu/showItem.aspx?product=310726&session=AB9E34BA934D4556BA8B3691889626BA
9. The Chief Diversity Officer: A Primer For College And University Presidents (2008), by Damon A. William, marketed by ACE at: http://store.acenet.edu/showItem.aspx?product=311683&session=AB9E34BA934D4556BA8B3691889626BA
10. “White Privilege”: A Shield against Reason, by Douglas G. Campbell, available at https://springerlink3.metapress.com/content/rmu083106568mp67/resource-secured/?target=fulltext.html&sid=0y4gnybrp33bki55hzavml45&sh=www.springerlink.com
