Diversity isn’t something that can magically be wished or demanded into existence by standing atop a soapbox and yelling. Diversity is something that will come slowly through the education of our generation.
During a Feb. 9 Palomar Governing Board meeting, Trustee John Halcon denied three English hires based off of not being able to see “the intent for diversity in these three hires.” To say the least, faculty hasn’t exactly taken kindly to voting against hires because their last names are too white.
In our time interviewing faculty on how Palomar can in a meaningful way increases diversity in the hiring of faculty, it has fallen back on the fact that the pools that colleges are picking potential hires from simply aren’t diversely deep enough.
This isn’t a fault of Palomar’s faculty or the administration, it’s a fault of the collegiate system and the lack of incentives and opportunity for minority groups to pursue higher education.
The thing is that diversity takes time. Time for our students to transfer in four years, bachelor’s programs, master’s programs, and hopefully professorship.
We have to continue encouraging collegiality underrepresented students to pursue careers in higher education by putting the college’s weight behind EOPS-like programs. On a student level creating communities through clubs like Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MECHA), Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), and Muslim Student Union (MSU).
The future of Palomar’s diversity is the academic success of our students and the hope that some will move on to teaching.
We at The Telescope, much like the rest of Palomar’s student body, hold a myriad of ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs and sexual identities. What troubles us and a sizable portion of the faculty is the assumption that diversity only runs skin deep.
Yes, a sizable portion of our campus is Latino; and yes, we need to look at how to ensure the continued upward momentum of our latino community; and yes, it’s commendable that Palomar was ranked in the Top 100 for minority degree producers. But while this is all well and good, what about the diversity that goes deeper than skin tone?
Diversity is something we can all strive for, but it can’t force. We just hope that the board comes to realise that.
