The Duke elitists made national headlines a few years ago with their Oprah-style, self-absorbed study/report called the Women’s Initiative. The project enshrined the phrase “effortless perfection” as part of the cringe-inducing, poor-me attitude embraced by young feminists who still – despite mountains of data, cultural shifts, and economic and educational opportunity — choose to see themselves as oppressed by Big Bad Men.
I can’t wait for the report on the university’s latest navel-gazing initiative, which will look at socio-economic diversity and, no doubt, will conclude there’s all sorts of oppression and unfairness imposed on society by Big Bad Rich Men. Oddly – but not surprisingly – a university that loves to tout its diversity now seems to believe that differences in class, income, and background constitute a problem to be solved. From the Duke Chronicle comes this comment by Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education:
For the time being, the Socioeconomic Diversity Initiative is only conducting a study, but it will not solve the issue entirely, Nowicki said. He added that he expects the study to spark “tangible concrete action items” that the University can then address.
Action items?????
