6/5/2011: UO student Ben DeJarnette adds some diversity of thought to his education – with a joint class with Oregon State Penitentiary inmates. From his Op-Ed in the RG:
… As universities do somersaults to achieve diversity in their student bodies, the Inside-Out experience should force us to question what that diversity ought to look like.
The current model stresses diversity of race, gender, sexuality and nationality. Perhaps these are important. But more important is the very ingredient that seems forgotten in universities’ melting pot: diversity of thought.
At the Oregon State Penitentiary, ideological diversity helps drive the success of Inside-Out. The operation is low-budget, but flashy computers do not ensure dialogue, and projector screens cannot replace fresh ideas. When it comes to classroom dynamics, the penitentiary and the Inside-Out program are doing education right.
I’d like to see the University of Oregon follow suit.
Ben DeJarnette of Mechanicsburg, Va., is a journalism student at the University of Oregon’s Clark Honors College.
I met with the search firm looking for UO’s new VP for Diversity, and went to 2 of the 5 “visioning sessions“. At one session someone actually said she assumed the new hire would be African-American, since the current one was Hispanic. The chair of the search committee made a point of saying that he had hired a woman owned search firm. Window dressing tokenism. But I don’t remember diversity of thought being mentioned once. This is not a new problem. For a focus on the political angle, see Dan Lawson’s CS Monitor piece here. Some UO reactions here.
Of course Ben is also an athlete on the XC/Track teams. Nice work, Ben.