When So Much Of The News, At First Glance, Seems To Be A Parody
At Campus Reform, Kate Anderson writes:
Professors from the University of Arizona and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs are arguing that "success and merit" are "barriers" to the equity agenda."Admitting that the normative definitions of success and merit are in and of themselves barriers to achieving the goals of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion is necessary but not sufficient to create change," professors Beth Mitchneck and Jessi L. Smith recently wrote for Inside Higher Education.
Mitchneck and Smith attributed those definitions to a "narrow definition of merit limited to a neoliberal view of the university." Specifically, they express concern that universities receive funding and recognition based on the individual performances of professors' own work such as peer reviewed journals and studies.
Campus Reform reached out to Smith, asking what should be done to alter the merit system. Smith did not provide any alternatives.
The professors are not the only scholars in academia to critique the merit system. Last month, University of Illinois professor Eunmi Mun said that merit-based pay does not take "nonperformance-related factors" into account.
Like if you have a kid and take a bunch of time off, maybe you don't do the amount of work of a professor friend of mine -- a woman who never had children and works day and night on her area of science.
We all have choices in life. If you choose to have kids, your work life will likely not be as productive as that of somebody who is single-minded about their professoring or whatever. Why should pay be adjusted -- and promotions be adjusted -- to see that the professor who works day and night effectively has their work erased when considered for advancement?
via ifeminists
This is the natural progression of the consumer/spectator economy/civilization: the public has heroes, but that public has no intention whatsoever of doing the same things their heroes have to gain such greatness.
The disconnect is so complete that the public then hates those achievers for their success, instead voting for those they imagine will hand that success to them.
TL;DR: people suck
Radwaste at September 13, 2021 4:10 AM
Of course “merit” and “success” are barriers to the “equity” agenda. The equity agenda is to achieve equal outcomes. To achieve that, the strategy must be to aim for the common denominator of achievement which all are able and motivated to reach. That’s the lowest common denominator.
Wfjag at September 13, 2021 4:54 AM
The equity agenda is just communism under a different name. It's like the example profs used to use to show what communism is: Student 1 works hard and deserves an A; Student 2 doesn't do anything and deserves an F; all of the students in the class get a C.
As Wfjag says, it's creating the lowest common denominator and denigrating hard work and achievement.
On the flip side, I once used a merit pool to bring my staff over the lowest pay for their grade and got completely excoriated for it because one person thought they merited something they didn't.
Midwest Chick at September 13, 2021 5:06 AM
Kids are time vampires. They don't need much money to raise, but they will suck every last second out of you. You will not do the volume or the quality of work you could before kids after you have one. Just isn't possible.
Ben at September 13, 2021 5:10 AM
You immediately conclude that what holds back some is children. What about laziness? Incompetence? Mediocrity? Folks who spend their time on “Social Justice” causes rather than on research and teaching? Those “non-performance-related factors”?
I (a high school English teacher) had four children, two disabled, yet I still accomplished more and worked harder than many of my colleagues. For 30 years. Was recognized as “Teacher of the Year” in my district.
Children are not the only, or even the most significant, factor in a person not achieving excellence in a field of endeavor.
Carolynn Spies at September 13, 2021 9:10 AM
Theoretically, there are no "nonperformance-related factors" when dealing with merit-based pay. Merit is supposed to mean performance.
Whatever this "equity agenda" is, it isn't grounded in the real world. It is an agenda that deserves to die a quick and painful death.
One wonders what bizarro world some of these people were raised in. I wish they would return to it.
ruralcounsel at September 13, 2021 9:31 AM
So, Carolynn... just imagine how many times you'd have been "Teacher of the Year" if you didn't also have to be "Mom of the Lifetime"!
You were also in a field that actually applied to your family. Now, imagine the theoretical physicist or mathemetician. Dang. Even... trucker.
The word is, "some", as you noted. Glad you could fly!
Radwaste at September 13, 2021 10:55 AM
Carolynn, kids aren't the only thing that impacts job performance . . . but they certainly do impact job performance. It was only one example. One that most people have to deal with.
Ben at September 13, 2021 11:29 AM
Apparently, these profs want to be rewarded and even applauded for...what? For existing? For their inherent wonderfulness? These mediocre talents resent real talent. They also implicitly believe that minorities can never succeed under a merit system because they lack merit.
Under communism, always, those who spout the correct party line and/or are friends/relatives of powerful people become in charge--but have no idea how to make cars or shoes, so the economy crashes. People starve. In clannish systems, you get to be in power if you have powerful relatives (your clan or tribe)--but the result is the same: a crash or just terrible productivity.
We assume that people in highly skill-demanding jobs do have those skills--airline pilot or surgeon or your tax attorney. Do you really want a pilot who can't even spell?
cc at September 13, 2021 12:18 PM
"Do you really want a pilot who can't even spell?"
Hmm. The Ninety-Nines®, the women's flying organization, has oddly promoted the advancement of commercial pilots through "diversity" initiatives.
This despite their own success being due to demonstrated skills - and the presence of female pilots today who have shown these skills.
I doubt they are the same group Mom joined decades ago.
Radwaste at September 15, 2021 9:15 AM
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