The Reductio Ad Absurdum of Diversity

St. Catherine University (generally referred to locally as St. Kate’s) is a Catholic school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Its undergraduate school is for women. For the last few years, St. Kate’s has put on a “leadership conference” for students and others. But on December 8, this year’s conference, which was scheduled for January 19 and had approximately 200 registrants, was abruptly canceled. A St. Kate’s dean explained what happened in an email to the 30 individuals who had been selected as presenters at the conference, out of 58 who applied:We received 58 proposals to fill the 30 slots on the program. The selections were made solely based on their fit with the three themes of the conference: Explore your purpose, Ignite your passion and Inspire excellence.This same process was used last year in order to be blind throughout the process so as not to exclude or unintentionally over represent a particular industry over another in the presenters collective. While well intentioned, it is a case where a blind process has led to a racial and ethnic blind outcome.In an article in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune, reporter Maura Lerner follows up:Last fall, St. Catherine University invited 30 businesswomen and inspirational speakers to lead the breakout sessions at a popular annual leadership conference.But the conference, which was billed as a networking and career-building event, never took place. The university canceled it because of what it called a lack of diversity among the invited speakers.The decision, which caught many of the speakers by surprise, has cast the Catholic university in St. Paul in an uncomfortable national spotlight. Last week, the conservative website Campus Reform reported that St. Catherine had pulled the plug on the event because “most, if not all the scheduled speakers ended up being white.”

Source: The Reductio Ad Absurdum of Diversity | Power Line