In the name of “diversity,” academic institutions admit students of sub-standard qualifications in preference to those with better credentials. This, they say, leads to greater understanding and learning than would be the case if all applications were given equal weight based on qualifications. Remember that never does “diversity” include diversity of thought or ideology, only liberal notions of diversity which presently include race, gender and sexual preference.
Low and behold, employers are beginning to figure out the scam. From no less than the NYT’s comes an article that certain law firms see their minority recruits as something of a problem.
Thanks to vigorous recruiting and pressure from corporate clients, black lawyers are well represented now among new associates at the nation’s most prestigious law firms. But they remain far less likely to stay at the firms or to make partner than their white counterparts.
A recent study says grades help explain the gap. To ensure diversity among new associates, the study found, elite law firms hire minority lawyers with, on average, much lower grades than white ones. That may, the study says, set them up to fail.
The new study proposes an explanation. It found that the pool of black lawyers with excellent law-school grades is so small that firms must relax their standards if they are to have new associates who resemble the pool of new lawyers.
So when those admitted to colleges, universities and professional schools on the basis of something other than merit cannot perform only several things can happen. The schools can fail and remove those that cannot perform to the established standards of the institution (thereby thwarting the stated objective of diversity) or they can lower the standards for purposes of retention. What is unanswered here is why there are so few black law school graduates with good grades in the pool. Could it be that those elite undergraduate universities, in the name of diversity, have recuited and promoted students who would be better served at other institutions?
Educators can fool themselves as to what is happening, but ultimately, employers will see that they have failed to deliver the goods. Hold every student to the same high standard and given some time, black students will perform to the same level as others. But the process must begin in the elementary schools, middle and high schools.
